Well my Sunday morning started early with the alarm set at 7am! I met Gary, who is in charge of the Globalteer Junior football league (http://www.globalteer.org/globalteer-soccer-league.html )here and we went off to the pitches for this Sunday’s round of matches. We got there for around 820am and there were already a few teams there warming up …. Eager!
The team were either under 12’s or under 17’s (there is also an under 15’s league that play alternate weeks!) and Gary explained that the matches were 7-a-side and were 10 minutes each way, with each tame two matches. I was there to let the teams have what equipment they needed that I had brought on behalf of umi over from the UK (the goalkeepers gloves were particularly helpful for some!)
The teams were NGO run school teams and you could really sense a really sense of community from each of the teams (of which the Under 12’s were boys and girls combined). The matches kicked off around 9am and each team had supporters with them as well as some of the Western staff that worked at the NGO’s. You could see that all the kids, whether playing or supporting really enjoyed their Sunday morning out. It was great to see how sport can be used so positively to help out people who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to get involved with organised team sports. I spoke with a number of the other officlas there , who were Cambodian, and a few of them had completed a coaching course and were helping to run the league as well as officiate the games.
There were also local coaches with most of the teams which was great to see! Below are a selection of photos from the morning. As you can see, i actually refereed a game.. it all went quite smoothly and ended 0-0 (although one of the girls get hit in the face by the football! OUCH!). If you know me from playing football with me, I don’t always see eye to eye with the referees when I play football, but fortunately I in charge of the Under 12’s Game so there was little incident!
There were great touches of sportsmanship with all teams shaking hands before and after the match, and it all being very sporting when they played.
I had a fantastic morning and really hope they continue with this league, as I could see with my own eyes the benefit that it had for these young people.
Enjoy the snaps.
