5 borough football tournament

About this event:

The five borough tournament has been organised by five inner city London boroughs to encourage young people to form a football team and take part in a knock out tournament. The Hackney tournament takes place on the 24th July for girls and guys aged 16 -18

Type of event:

Sport

Date:

24 July 2009

Time:

4 -6pm Girls tournament; 6-9pm Boys tournament

Ticket information:

www.skyway.uk.com

Organisation:

SkyWay Charity

Place:

Blue Hut
49 Provost Street
N1 7NZ
02077296970

Is event accessible:

Yes

Website:

www.skyway.uk.com

Full details:

24 July, 7.00pm: Michael, Culture team

Open Weekend gave me a great excuse to leave the London 2012 HQ early on Friday evening.  My destination was the Five Boroughs Football Tournament taking place at the Skyway Youth Club in Hackney (www.skyway.uk.com ).  I arrived as the boys tournament was getting underway (the girls had already played – well done to Hackney FC Girls who had won the day). 

The competition was in its early stages with six Hackney boys teams playing to decide which team would go on to play the other competing boroughs (Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest & Greenwich) at a later date.  All the players were between 16 and 18 years old and the competition has been specifically set up for Open Weekend.

The knockout started with a team talk from the referee to all the teams competing. He described the kind of competition he wanted to see and talked of the values we hope to see in all forms of competition – friendship, respect, fairness and team play – a truly Olympic and Paralympic team talk!

As the first game began I caught up with two of the organisers Daniel M. and Daniel S. who told me that the aim of the Open Weekend competition was to enable the young people to play together outside of the existing local football league framework.  To allow players of all abilities to come together and give those players who don’t ordinarily get the chance to play competitive football an opportunity to be involved.  The aim of the tournament is also to give the young people a chance to mix and meet with other peer groups outside of their postcode and immediate community.  To encourage friendship connections and mutual respect in their own borough and beyond.  On a lesser note the competition also gave a fantastic opportunity for the teams to test out the recently laid Astroturf on the court, which was looking good!

The football was skilful and competitive. I stayed for a while and found that the enthusiasm, passion and energy of the players and their strong band of supporters was truly infectious!  A good reason to leave my work post early and a great way to start my Open Weekend!

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