It is often called a game of two halves. But Alan Pook plans to use the team spirit of football to unite the two sides of a bitterly-divided community and promote peace.

Next year, the father of four plans to set up a summer soccer camp in Israel and get children talking to each other through the universal language of football.

On the last day, a tournament between the teams of boys and girls from Jewish, Muslim and Christian backgrounds will be held.

Alan, of Surrenden Road, Brighton, got inspiration for his idea after running similar summer football schemes for Sussex schoolchildren.

Teamwork forced groups of six pupils from different schools, who were traditionally rivals, to speak to each other.

Alan said: "It used to cut a lot of the local school rivalry out. In football you have to talk all the time to communicate and play the game."

Now Alan, 45, hopes to take his football skills to Israel to help heal rifts which have divided the country for decades.

With his wife Debbie and 11-year-old son Jack, he has recently returned from Israel where he visited a youth club in Ibellin, near Nazareth. That is where he hopes to hold the camp.

The club, which has more than 100 members, is special because it is open to both Arab and Jewish children.

Property developer Alan, who worships at the Florence Road Baptist Church, Brighton, said: "Children are a little more open-minded when they are younger and mix with those from different factions.

"But as they grow up they tend to want the associations to end."

Instead, Alan wants young footballers of all backgrounds to strike out through the game and become friends for life.

He said: "Children are completely blind to colour, creed and race.

"It doesn't just have to be football, with any sport maybe a little bit of peace can be achieved."

Alan discovered the Ibellin youth club through his former minister Rev Geoffrey Whitfield who has often visited Israel in the past four years.

Rev Whitfield, who lives in Green Park, Ferring, believes Alan's vision could help change society in Israel.

He said: "I think it could be a benchmark in the peace process. The amount of segregation in the community is beyond our comprehension."

The retired minister knows that not everyone in the village will be pleased about children from different factions mixing on the football pitch. Although the youth club is open to Jewish children, only a few attend.

Alan, who has been involved with the Brighton Schools' FA for 12 years, has to return to Israel to finalise dates and venues for the camp.

Next June, he hopes 10 football coaches from Sussex will travel with him to the troubled country and help make the camp a success.