Posted on: Friday 18 November 2022
More than 180 children got into the World Cup spirit this week by taking part in a football festival, organised by Torfaen Council.
Nineteen primary schools took part in the event at Cwmbran stadium and were asked to represent one of the countries taking part in the World Cup, which kicks off on Sunday.
The festival, which celebrated diversity in sport, was filmed for the FC Cymru programme, available on the FAW’s new streaming service the Red Wall+.
FC Cymru captures how communities over Wales are using football to promote Welsh culture.
The pupils from years four, five and six wore the colours of their chosen countries and were tasked with designing a fact file and posters.
It was a day of non-competitive football, with all the teams divided into two groups for a series of round robin games.
The children also took part in a Q and A workshop delivered by No Boundaries – a company that specialises in diversity and inclusion awareness and education, where they learned about the negative impacts of racism from those that have experienced it.
Emily, age 9, from Maendy Primary School, said, “I’ve learned a lot from today! I really enjoyed playing football and the racism talk made me more aware of how we should treat all kinds of people.”
Miles, age 10, from Blaenavon Heritage School, said, “I love playing football with my friends. It was great to get the chance to play against so many different schools. Our school were chose to represent Holland at the festival and we had fun making our fact file."
The children were given fruit and snacks throughout the day and received an Football Association Wales badge for their contribution.
The event was supported by up-and-coming Cardiff rapper Mace the Great who helped ref some games, also Gwent Police, Show Racism the Red Card, FAW, Game on and local football clubs were all involved.
Event organiser and Torfaen Council Sports Development Officer, Jacob Guy, said, “The chance to promote diversity and inclusivity through sport is a powerful thing.
“Being able to work with our primary schools to offer a world cup festival was great, not only to play football, but to also educate all the children about the impacts of racism and importance of inclusion.
“All the schools really did step up and produced some fabulous artwork that celebrated diversity across the globe”.
Wales first World Cup game takes place on Monday evening against the USA.
To find out more about sports activities and clubs operating across the borough, call 01633 628936 or email Jacob.guy@torfaen.gov.uk