It’s less than a year away and the St Helena Football Association is planning to enter a St Helena football team into the NatWest International Island Games which are scheduled held in Guernsey next July (2021). To facilitate getting a team to the games, the Association needs to raise sufficient funding to enable the team to participate.
Last year the Association successfully raised £70,000 for the St Helena International Football Team to attend the Inter-Island Games Tournament in Ynys Mon, Wales. Despite the results not going in favour of the team, it was a great leap forward for the development of football in St Helena and also provided an incentive for youngsters in St Helena as more junior-age children are now expressing an interest in junior football.
When asked what was the biggest challenge to getting the team to games Nick Stevens from the St Helena Association said “It was the cost of flights to and from the Island as well as the accommodation cost remembering that the team needs to depart a week prior to the games and also they have to travel back a week after the event to meet the weekly flight schedules but also factoring in any delays in the process”.
Planning is in progress to raise funds with several events scheduled on Island over the coming months. A Port-to-Port event is planned for the 31 August which is a sponsored walk from the St Helena Airport to Rupert’s Bay. This is a 14 km walk that is open to everyone. A 12-hour musical Extravaganza is also planned for Friday 28th August at the Seafront in Jamestown. There is also a raffle coming soon with the first prize being a brand new Sym Scooter.
The St Helena Association is keen to hear from anyone that has any great ideas to share that will help raise funds to help to get the team to the games again next year which not only contributes to and improves Island football as a sport on the island but also exposes the visibility of St Helena as an Island on a stage that captures many football fans imagination and in the global media.
You might ask how can I help towards getting the St Helena team to the games. You can donate here at the St Helena Football Association Go Fund Me page or at the very least please share this post with others via your social media platforms, so together we can help the organizers and St Helena achieve another goal in these testing times.
Learn more about the St Helena football team and NSASH
