Every year on August 14, the International Council of Traditional Sports and Games coordinates the global celebration of the International Day for Traditional Sports and Games (TSGDay). The designation of this date is the result of years of international advocacy, diplomatic engagement, and community mobilisation by the global TSG movement.

The Road to Recognition

The path to an official International Day for Traditional Sports and Games began at the first UNESCO Collective Consultation on Traditional Sports and Games in Paris in 2006, where representatives from governments, NGOs, and sports organisations called for greater international recognition of TSG as intangible cultural heritage.

Subsequent consultations — in 2010, 2014, and 2018 — expanded the global TSG community and built the institutional momentum necessary for an international day designation. The 4th Collective Consultation in Istanbul in 2018 saw the first formal ministerial ownership of TSG, with sports ministers from across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas committing to national-level TSG programmes.

August 14, 2022: The Declaration

On August 14, 2022, the International Day for Traditional Sports and Games was formally declared, with messages of support from the European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, Pakistan President Dr. Arif Alvi, and ICTSG Ambassador-at-Large Joel Bouzou. The date was chosen to honour the founding of ICTSG and the broader TSG movement's global institutional framework.

Annual Celebrations

Each August 14, communities across every continent observe TSGDay through festivals, workshops, school events, digital campaigns, and intergovernmental webinars. The day has grown year on year, with 2025 seeing the largest coordinated celebration in the movement's history, including the adoption of a landmark Global Declaration and the formation of the ICTSG Women's Committee.

Why Traditional Sports and Games Need Their Own Day

In a global sports landscape dominated by a small number of commercially powerful sports, the International Day for Traditional Sports and Games serves a vital function: it reminds governments, media organisations, and communities that the great majority of the world's sporting heritage lies outside the Olympic canon.

Over 160 traditional sports documented in the ICTSG encyclopedia represent thousands of years of human creativity, community organisation, and physical culture. Most of these sports receive no funding, no media coverage, and no formal protection. TSGDay is one day each year when the world's attention turns — however briefly — to the games that built us.