SCWC UPDATE – THURSDAY

Well, it’s the end of the group stages of the Street Child World Cup – apparently now formally retitled ‘World Championships’ after a shameful copyright intervention by FIFA. You really would think they’d be better off giving the tournament their blessing, some funding (which would be loose change to the multimillionaires of football administration) and the encouragement to keep promoting grassroots football, in a way FIFA seems unable to do.

Anyway, it’s the end of phase 1, and the semifinals will see Nicaragua play Tanzania and the UK take on India. That’s a team from each of the four continents represented, which is great for the tournament.

We met up today with BMS worker Dan Pratt, who’s based in Johannesburg, and who’s brought the most wonderful team of volunteer youth workers with him to help out. We’ve had the chance to film interviews with Dan and some of the team, and they’ll make for an inspiring additional little resource from our time here.

We’ve been blessed by the cooperation we’ve received not only from Team Nicaragua, but also from Team Philippines, whose players have made filmed contributions to what will become our John Motson-hosted World Cup resources. The players are thrilled that they’ll be appearing on the same resources as players like Kaka and Marcos Senna.

In a less happy development, it’s been confirmed that the Nicaragua player Marcia (our favourite player of the tournament) has broken her foot, and will, in a Rooney-esque way, miss the finals.

The ramifications of yesterday’s round-up of street children by Durban police continues, this time with the unhappy sight of dozens of trainee riot police in full riot gear (including plastic bullet rifles and shields) training only a few yards from where the SCWC players are warming up. As they marched through the ranks of street children, it was both disturbing and worrying. Of all places, why do they need to do this at the venue being used by street children? It was very clear that they weren’t in the mood for us taking photos of them either.

But the tournament marches on. Tomorrow (Friday) is the mayoral reception for the children, along with some beach time. In fact, we watched the NGO Umthombo teaching street children to surf this morning, and some of those shots will find their way into our resources.

Still lots to do – but this is deeply inspiring work, and is giving cause for thought to all those involved.

(And a special ‘hi’ to Paul and Valerie Wichester, who are friends of BMS who are here as volunteers, and doing a splendid job!)

Mark