Football is a widespread game – “The World Game” - enjoyed by many, bringing peace and friendship between countries and unites individuals, families and friends. In impoverished countries such as Cambodia, football is gradually on the rise. Children and men play in the capital city of Phnom Penh anywhere they can from parks to pavements to roadsides and rice fields without any coaches or training. For many Cambodian children, playing football would be a dream come true as some cannot find a sufficient space to play nor afford to buy appropriate gear like football boots or balls. However, the establishment of Happy Football Cambodia Australia in 2005 has made these dreams become possible.
Happy Football Cambodia Australia helps underprivileged children by providing them with the equipment, space and skills they need to become professional football players. In conjunction with training children around schools in the city of Phnom Penh, Happy Football Cambodia Australia paved the way for a team to represent Cambodia at the 2008 Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, the 2009 Homeless World Cup in Milan, and the 2010 HWC in Rio de Janeiro.
The Homeless World Cup is a life changing experience uniting 56 nations, and allows street children to represent their country- a prospect a child could only wish for. Soccer programs such as HFCA or Collingwood Allstars are proven to have positive outcomes such as a new motivation for life, transforming their lives significantly, obtaining employment, improving living conditions, deciding to begin school, and improvements in health, both physical and mental.
The ‘Fair Play’ Futsal Soccer Competition has been instrumental in raising funds to help Happy Football Cambodia Australia run their programs and to send a team to the Homeless World Cup. So far the 7 tournaments have raised a total of over $22,000. Funds from Fair Play are donated to both Happy Football Cambodia and the Collingwood Allstars Football Program.
Jinta Sports, who are committed to encouraging Fair Trade and the removal of childfree labour, sponsor the 5-a-side competition. The Australian based football brand pride themselves on producing high quality sporting goods and help sell the products to assist those children in developing countries across the world. Their ethical business approach has been recognised with many awards including a 2008 Premier’s Sustainability Award.
Fair Play has evolved into a family day of fun, with spectators supporting the 16 mixed teams, whilst enjoying the music, bar, coffee and food, and other off pitch activities including kids activities.
At Fair Play 8 there will be a PBSFM stage, a Community Stage, a Melbourne Heart Junior Competition, a Foosball Table competition and a bouncy castle.
Fair Play encourages the participation from all corners of the local community and teams have included players from public housing estates (funded by Vic Police), teams with disabilities, the Australian Homeless National Team (the Socceroos), RRR, PBSFM and KissFM radio stations, the City of Yarra and the Cambodian National Homeless Team.
The 8th Fair Play competition takes place on Saturday March 12th at Victoria Park, off Johnston Street, Abbotsford. If you would like to enter a team in to the competition please contact jon@cheapthrills.com.au or pgrogan@hfcaustralia.org or come down on the day and help us change lives. See www.hfcaustralia.org for more details.
