TackleAfrica Jersey Football Marathon

TackleAfrica is thrilled to announce that the Jersey Football Marathon is back for 2022 and will be held at the Airport Playing Fields on 23rd July.

Team registration closed on 17th June, and there are 12 sides entered this year.  This is our 11th event in Jersey and after the soaking we got last year we’re hoping for some sunshine and a light breeze. In 2021, despite the rain and sometimes comical conditions 12 teams played with a great spirit and produced a quite memorable 10th Football Marathon event in Jersey.

The event has now raised over £145,000 for the work of TackleAfrica. Huge applause to the Jersey footballing community for raising this incredible amount.

The event is a 12-hour six-a-side super-tournament with all teams kicking off at 8am and the final whistle being blown at 8pm.  Teams in squads of 8, will play approximately 20 matches over the day each being 20 mins long.  More information can be found on-line at TackleAfrica.org and on social media.

The Jersey Football Marathon is one of five Football Marathons being run this year by TackleAfrica over the summer with other venues being London, Brighton, Oxford and a debut for Bristol.  Overall, the event has raised over £1.9m for TackleAfrica since 2005.

TackleAfrica would like to give a public shout-out to all those in Jersey who have supported us over the years, including:

• Jersey Sport – venues, kit hire and support
• Les Quennevais Sports Centre and their amazing grounds crew!
• St. John’s Ambulance – health and safety
• All physios who have helped us over the years!
• Charlie Browne, Jersey Football Combination
• Dave Kennedy, Jersey FA
• Europcar – logistics
• Jersey Youth Arts – Music
• DJ Nelson – AV / PA kit
• C5 Alliance – Technology needed to run the event

Local organiser, John Gamble, said: “After everything that’s happened in the couple of year, we were so pleased to be able to put on a full format tournament in 2021, and delighted to be back again in 2022.  The charity sector has massively suffered due to COVID, but issues like HIV and FGM in Africa haven’t gone away so this tournament is really important for the work that we do in Africa.

“We’re also thrilled that this will be the 11th Football Marathon in Jersey. Six teams raised a little over £5k in 2012 so to get to where we are today where the event has raised over £145k is awesome.  We owe a big debt of thanks to the Jersey Footballing Committee and we hope we’ve given them some great memories over the years and a lot of fun.”

Football Marathon Events in Jersey

A football marathon has been run in Jersey each year since 2012.  Regularly attracting nearly 200 players supporters and helpers, all contributing to raise funds for TackleAfrica.  In 2021, the 10th annual Jersey Football Marathon was held at Airport Playing Fields in pouring rain which lasted all day.  Following 9 previous Football Marathons in glorious Jersey sunshine we were probably due a soaking!

Here are some key stats from the 2021 tournament:

• 12 teams (100 footballers) played 6-a-side football for 12 hours on Saturday 7th August 2021 in appallingly soggy conditions.
• Overall 772 goals were scored in 257 games, at a decent average of over 3 Goals per game
• Tournament Winners ‘Nontes 4 Africa’ had the 2nd best overall record on the day, winning all but 4 of their games
• Puyol were this year’s top scorers, notching a prolific 93 goals in their 23 games, and also had the meanest defence, conceding a miserly 31 and actually only lost once on twice on the day – one of which being their semi-final.
• Congratulations to top fundraisers Fatzio, who led a very impressive fundraising field with teams averaging £1,442 against a target of £1,360
• All teams played in a wonderful spirit on the day and everyone enjoyed themselves

The Jersey Football Marathon has now raised £147,213 across its 9 year history in Jersey and TackleAfrica hopes the Jersey Football Community is as proud of itself as we are of it.

It costs ~£1,500 for TackleAfrica to fully train and support a coach in Africa for a year, so as you can imagine, that goes a long way in Africa supporting young people at risk of HIV and related sexual health issues.

Images courtesy of Sportscast Jersey.