Twelve young people from streetfootballworld’s network members in South Africa’s Western Cape played a starring role in a huge global campaign this week as they took part in a unique football match in the middle of a wildlife reserve.

Sony’s Twilight Football campaign was created to promote their new low-light camera technology and involved seven games of football taking place at twilight around the world in dramatic locations in England, Argentina, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Spain and South Africa.

Over 24 hours matches took place on floating platforms, muddy swamps, Alpine snow and burning desert, culminating in the game in South Africa which was played in a game reserve under the watchful eyes of elephants, buffalo and hippos, as well as journalists and photographers from all over the world.

The twelve South Africans, including two young women, who played against Sony’s Twilight team from the UK are all part of streetfootballworld network member organisations from the Western Cape: Amandla Ku Lutsha, Grassroot Soccer and South African Homeless Street Soccer (SAHSS).

The opportunity came about thanks to streetfootballworld’s ongoing relationship with Sony as a CSR partner, but this was the first time streetfootballworld had been involved in a global marketing campaign of this size. Each organisation was asked to select four young people who had contributed positively to their work in the community.

An example for his peers
“It’s awesome,” said the streetfootballworld team’s captain Xolani Sicamba, who works with South African Homeless Street Soccer. “It’s one of these things that makes you feel like all the hard work you do is rewarded”.

Things could have turned out very differently for the 25-year old from the Eastern Cape, who was sent to South Africa’s notorious Pollsmoor Prison after being caught stealing to pay for his school equipment. But Xolani has since established himself as one of SAHSS’s youth leaders, and hopes his Twilight experience will inspire others to follow in his footsteps.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow so I can go back and show people what I’ve done,” he said after the game. “I have been telling the kids I work with that if you keep working hard then one day you will be rewarded, and now for me to go back with this experience will be a real inspiration to more youngsters to participate in our project.”

Sony breaks new ground once again
Sony is responsible for some of the world’s most iconic advertising campaigns, such as releasing hundreds of thousands of bouncing balls down the streets of San Francisco, covering a Glasgow housing estate in exploding paint and filling the streets of Miami with foam.

“I thought the streetfootballworld team carried themselves unbelievably well,” said James Kennedy, Brand Communications Manager for Sony Europe and the man behind many of the campaigns mentioned above, including Twilight Football.

“This was an important game for us, in front of 60 or 70 journalists from all over the world. I think the streetfootballworld players’ characters really came through in the last few days, and some of the girls were probably the best players on the pitch!”

 “It was a brilliant experience to play in this setting,” said Rob Leonard, the goalkeeper of the Sony TF.com side that won a competition in the UK to particpate in the event and who ran out narrow 1-0 winners. “To play with the guys from streetfootballworld has been awesome, I really enjoyed it.”

Written by Mike Geddes