Another big football fest about to kick off for charity

Friday 03 June 2016

The organisers of a marathon footie fest are hoping to get even more players pitching in to help kick off a massive fundraiser at the weekend.

The TackleAfrica Jersey Football Marathon is back at Les Quennevais sports centre tomorrow and looks set to be the biggest yet.

The event was first run in London in 2002. Now in its 14th year the Marathon has raised over £1.2 million for TackleAfrica – a charity that uses football coaching to give life-saving HIV education to young people across Africa.

Local organiser John Gamble said: “We were delighted with the success of the Football Marathons in Jersey and the overwhelming feedback we got.  It’s a challenging event, but it’s a great day out and you get a fantastic buzz from playing.  It was wonderful to see the returning players from previous years and all the new teams that took part.  We’re thrilled to have the support of Les Quennevais Sports Centre once again, and we’re hoping to be double in size this year.”

Last year’s local event saw over 100 Island footballers taking part. The 14 teams played at least twenty, twenty minute games of football during the 12 hour marathon, together raising over £13,000 - enough to train and support 50 African coaches to deliver regular HIV education sessions to 2,000 young people in their communities for a year.

Kick off is at 8 am.