The Leicestershire and Rutland County Football Association was very keen to raise money for CLIC Sargent, the children’s cancer charity and the World Cup gave us a great theme for us to engage our local grassroots football clubs in helping to support the charity’s Kick for Children with Cancer campaign.
The Celebration of the England Football Day, World Cup themed events gave us the opportunity to encompass and include all the different age groups of teams in Leicestershire & Rutland and to do this it had to be 5 big events or nothing!! With a great facility at Holmes Park, local Clubs were keen to sign up for the events.
The five festivals saw our adult male teams competing in a 5 a side competition, with England beating Spain 1-0 in the final! The adults sure enjoyed the World Cup Theme and really got into the spirit of the day. Local Inclusive (Disability) teams competed in Junior, Youth and Adult World Cup’s, with over 100 players attending, the emphasis was on Respect and Fun for All. To kick off the days events all teams paraded around the pitch carrying the flag of the Country they were representing, it was a fantastic sight. Spain, represented by Harborough Alliance Inclusive Football Partnership on the day, won the World Cup Fair Play Trophy. Each team was presented with a World Cup themed trophy and England themed commemorative medal. Everybody had a great day of football.
Our third festival was aimed at getting children from diverse communities involved in the celebration. The Festival was aimed at U11’s and U13’s boys from temples, mosques and schools around the city of Leicester. For the second time in 3 festivals, the weather did not fail to provide us with torrential rain and despite the late start all 8 teams from each age group contested in the spirit of the game with both finals going into extra time and penalties. After the finals, a charity game took place between Leicestershire Constabulary and the volunteers at Community Football Academy 04 FC.
To finish off the World Cup themed fundraising events over 250 boys and over 120 girls took part in fantastic football fun and competitions. Players turned up with faces painted, mainly with the England Emblem and had a great time playing football in a fun and friendly environment, in the true spirit of the World Cup, enjoying being one of the 32 Countries involved in the competition.
The monies were raised by raffling England shirts signed by John Terry and Matthew Upson and part of the team entry fees and other items helped us to raise the £1000.00 which we have donated today.
Laurence Jones, Chief Executive of the County FA says “We would like to thank all staff for the well organised events and of course, the clubs, teams, coaches, parents and spectators for their donations. It has been a real team effort, both in promoting the work of the County FA within the local community and also in raising the money for charity, a fantastic total of £1000.00. We are absolutely delighted to be able to make a difference and support CLIC Sargent with a presentation of the cheque today to Dee Tyler, Event Fundraising manager”.
Kick for Children with Cancer is a fun football fundraiser encouraging young people to join in with the World Cup summer and get out on the pitch, to raise money for CLIC Sargent. Schools and youth clubs hold their own sponsored football events to help children and young people with cancer.
Should you wish to find out more about the work of the Leicestershire and Rutland County FA, please visit www.leicestershirefa.com For more information about CLIC Sargent’s Kick for Children with Cancer www.clicsargent.org.uk/football