Having graduated from a few months ago, Tom and I have spent the past 6 weeks volunteering in Mozambique and traveling round Malawi. During this time, we were lucky enough to take a few coaching sessions across both countries. It turns out, they’re all football mad.

Needless to say, Malawi and Mozambique aren’t doing so well economically. As an inexpensive and highly accessible form of entertainment, football is quite central to life out there. During the world cup season, locals would crowd in their dozens around tiny televisions and would go mad whenever anyone would score. Apparently, during the season, kids and adults alike venture far out of their way to watch live premier league games and are pretty fanatical about their favourite teams and players. In Cape Maclear, Malawi, the local team consistently draws crowds of 4 or 5 thousand. I don’t think this is far off the population of the whole village.

I was lucky enough to play in one of these games, and they’re mental. They have a referee, but he is basically just for show. High feet and two-footed tackles all over the shop - this guy literally got pushed off the pitch into a hole and the ref didn’t even bat an eyelid. Despite having some unbelievably gifted footballers, they aren’t even too sure of the rules. They play on seriously uneven dirt pitches, and each club tends to only have a single beaten up old football.

After being inspired by the kindness and untapped potential of the boys we trained out there, Tom and I have decided to launch a charity affiliation with the town of Cape Mclear. We are hoping to secure funding that would allow us to send a load of decent footballs, cones, a coaching manual and a rulebook amongst other equipment that would represent an undeniable source of happiness for the local community. I am currently in the process of emailing local football clubs to try and get our hands on a load of 2nd hand football boots to send out there! For the kids team, we are in the market for:

9* size EU 37

4* size EU 41

1* size EU 42

Any old pair of boots that you may have lying around will do for the adults team.

This will be supported by the University of Manchester Football Club. If we are successful, we hope to scale the operation in a variety of other locations.

If anyone is interested in going out there and doing some coaching/traveling, I would give it my highest recommendations. Feel free to inbox us. Thanks guys, Z & T. x