Kick-off for mosque tournament

5/11/2008

FOUR Manchester mosques took part in a football competition organised by FC United.

Teams from Sunna Mosque and the Darul-hiqmah Centre, both in Cheetham Hill, the Didsbury Mosque and the Makki Masjid in Longsight were joined by a team from Noor Mosque in Old Trafford.

Each entered an under 11s team, an under 14s team and an under 16s team to contest the five-a-side tournament at Old Trafford Sports Barn.

The tournament was made possible by the efforts of volunteers from FC United who worked as referees and organisers.

FC United community organiser Robin Pyle said: "The idea originally came from Diallo Mamadou, a basketball coach living in Cheetham Hill. He asked us whether we would be interested in helping him to organise football activities in his area to give the youth something positive to do. We said we were keen to help and together we developed the idea of a tournament for mosques."

"We plan to build on the success of this tournament to organise more activities in these parts of Manchester, aimed at encouraging young people to take part in sport."

All participants in the tournament received a goody bag which included free tickets to the next FC United match which was a home fixture with Ilkeston Town in the Unibond Northern Premier League.

Robin added: ‘We are keen for our club to become a vehicle for community cohesion in this city and that means welcoming all parts of the community to our matches." He paid a special tribute to chief tournament organiser, Andrew Serraillier, and FC United manager, Karl Marginson and community coach, Phil Schofield, who ran training sessions for youngsters waiting for their turn to play.

The under 11s and under 14s tournaments were won by Makki Mosque from Longsight. The Under 16’s competition was won by Noor Mosque.

FC United is a democratically-run fans’-owned football club. It was founded three and a half years ago and has been promoted every season so far. It plays its home games at Gigg Lane in Bury and is averaging home crowds of over 2,000 this season.