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San José’s first ever Street Football Championship!
written on: 11-04-2007
On March 25th, 2007 the grand finale of San José’s first ever street football championship was celebrated in the heart of the city. To mark the occasion and to provide a street football pitch, a section of the Paseo Colón, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, was closed to traffic.
The event was coordinated by the streetfootballworld network member Fundación Vive Fútbol and was supported by San José’s Mayor Johnny Araya. The fundamental objective of Vive Fútbol is to develop programmes to help deal with increasing levels of violence among youths and school drop-outs.
After months of preparations and the organisation of a number of tournaments the grand finale brought together children and youths from the city’s most disadvantaged quarters. The event provided them the opportunity to showcase their talents with pride and dignity on one of the city’s most important streets and at the centre of the community’s attention.
The matches in the group stage lasted 10 minutes, which increased to 15 in the knockout stages. And without girls the teams couldn’t win a thing - mixed teams were a requirement for participation in the tournament.
A party atmosphere was guaranteed by the cheerleaders from the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica and other performance artists including a group of clowns who entertained fans – young and old. In addition, all players took part in a workshop where issues such as dropping out of school, criminality and drug use were discussed.
The tournament was a first step for Vive Fútbol on the road to the establishment of a National Street Football Championship. In this process, social themes around football will take a more central role in the event. The tournament is planned for April 2007.
Following the success of the San José tournament the Fundación Vive Fútbol has collected new energy for the organisation of the national tournament and its goal of providing hundreds of youths across the country with the chance through football to lead a proud and dignified life.
Photo: Vive Fútbol
Vive Fútbol
San José
(
Costa Rica
)
vivefutbol@yahoo.es
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