Osmani Trust’s Football in the Community (FITC) project in partnership with Canary Wharf and Football Foundation held their annual Canary Wharf Cup following the huge success of the Tower Hamlets Community Cup in August. The seven a side tournament for under 12’s and 14’s took place last week at Mile End Leisure Centre.
More than 150 young people from across London took part in the tournament, which also marked the end of the national Week of Action to celebrate the diversity of football and our communities. Osmani Trust believes tournaments such as these help engaged young people positively and help to build community cohesion. Zakir Khan, Head of Community Affairs at Canary Wharf Group said “Canary Wharf and Osmani Trust share the same vision of engaging local young people in positive activities, we are proud to be working with such a great organisation who have become so well know for the services they offer”
The tournament itself was full of excitement with a whole host of talented young players on show, however, the teams from Tower Hamlets showed most potential to progress to the knock out stages. In the Under 12 age group it was Tower Hamlets versus Newham in the semi-final with ELSA and Lotus Sports representing Newham and Cannon FC and Soul holding the flag for Tower Hamlets. In the older age group there were three teams from Tower Hamlets (Vallance FC, Senrab and Shadwell YO) and one from Hackney (Springfield). In a tightly contested semi-final Cannon FC and Soul overcame their Newham counterparts to set up a local derby final, while in the under 14 it was another derby match between Vallance FC and Shadwell YO.
Abdal Ahmed, Football Development Manager at Osmani Trust said “It’s once again great to see so many young people in one place enjoying their football, the attitude of the young people has been fantastic and very encouraging, so many of these young people are labelled negatively and Osmani Trust through its FITC project is working hard to change this”
The finals were as expected in the under 12 age group, an intense battle between two local rivals. There were very few chances as both teams cancelled each other out and looked very tired, Cannon FC managed to find that extra energy and their player of the tournament came out with the winning goal in the second half. The under 14 was a more one sided affair with Vallance FC cruising past Shadwell FC to win the match.
Bala Arumugam, manager of Lotus Sports said “It was a fantastic day for both the coaches and players, the players thoroughly enjoyed it, which was extremely well organised yet again”
Winners
Under 12: Cannon FC
Under 14: Vallance FC
Runners-Up
Under 12: Soul FC
Under14: Shadwell YO
For more information on the services offered by the FITC project or Osmani Trust please contact Abdal Ahmed on 020 7247 8080 or via abdal.ahmed@osmanitrust.org