Merry Christmas

As we celebrate Christmas the birth of Jesus,

May God grant you all the following things

-          not just at Christmas, but throughout

the New Year and all the years to come

 May God grant you the light of Christmas,

which is faith;

The warmth of Christmas,

which is love;

The radiance of Christmas,

which is purity;

The righteousness of Christmas,

which is justice;

The belief in Christmas,

which is truth;

The all of Christmas,

which is Christ.

Making of a better man

I have often thought of football as a means to an end and not an end in itself, as I watch young people taking part in football activities, I often wonder what will happen should they lose interest in the beautiful game?;  then there is the so called ‘football widows’ that’s wives and girlfriends of football players.

What if we have a football club that is different, doesn’t take itself too seriously, puts the interest of the individual above money or the will to win at all cost, a club that is almost obsess with the development of the individual player, to help the player become a better boyfriend, husband, dad, neighbour e.t.c

At the Enfield Gospel Festival (EGF) meeting tonight, someone suggested creating a football club that embraces everything that the festival stands for, which will mean involving all the local Churches and supporters of the Christian faith. The challenge now is how do we reconciliate the core belief of the EGF as we thrive to help make the better player, so much so that even if he decides to turn his back on the beautiful game, we’ll know that we have make a contribution to his life that would enable him to be a productive member of society.

So what is the  benefits will playing the beautiful game with Christmanship?

* Communications skills

* Discipline

* Working as part of a team

* Safeguarding the safety of other

* Work on own intiative

Till next week.

Yemi is heavily involved with the EGF (http://www.enfieldgospelfestival.org/)

My brand continues

Hello good people,
Continuing from where I left off, there were a lot of activities last week with the failed England bid to host the World Cup in 2018 and all the counter argument that followed; I will like to say congratulations to both Russia and Qatar for their successful bid for 2018 and 2022 respectively.
It would be interesting to see how the Qatar stadiums to be distributed to Africa will work in reality, what countries, what region and how many will each get?

Back to my brand of football, I have outline some basic rules that would enhance the FA’s Respect campaign but might be hard to sell to the established football leagues in the country.

The beauty of these rules are the simplicity and  how easy they can be taught to a younger generation thus changing the face of football as we know; this is my blue print to change a child at a time.
The rules are based on the ‘Golden rule’
“Do to others as you would have them do to you” Luke 6:31.

* Not appealing when we know we have kicked the ball out
* Not deliberately handling the ball to prevent the
  opposition scoring, nor time-wasting when leading
* Not standing in front of someone about to take a free kick
* Not kicking the ball away
* Not arguing with a Referee or linesman
* Not arguing with the opposition
* Not pulling opponent’s shirt, nor diving in the 18 yard box
* Not complaining to a team-mate when they make a mistake
Always remember that playing against any team is a GOD
given opportunity to display our footballing skills competitively.

Till next week.

My brand of Football

Football ( or the beautiful game as I prefer to call it ) is played across the globe, someone once told me that football is a game of gentlemen played by hooligans and someone else said, 22 men in need of rest watched by 36,000 people in need of exercise.

Whichever way you view football as a game in England, it is overdue for a makeover, trouble is the Football Association (FA) is like a toothless dog as the game is now controlled by Corporate Britiain purely for profit, England invented this game so atleast they should be really good at it with the most coaches and made easily available to all.
The contrary is true, there are only 2,769 English coaches holding Uefa's B, A and Pro badges, its top qualifications. Spain has produced 23,995, Italy 29,420, Germany 34,970 and France 17,588.
There are 2.25 million players in England and only one Uefa-qualified coach for every 812 people playing the game. Spain have 408,134 players, giving a ratio of 1:17. In Italy,  the ratio is 1:48, in France it is 1:96, Germany 1:150 and even Greece, the Euro 2004 winners, have only 180,000 registered players for their 1,100 coaches, a ratio of 1:135.

The so called 'big clubs' through their football academies haven't helped either, the serious business of playing for a big club starts at 16 (after a few years of playing matches at grassroot level) yet the Premier League and Football League say between 60% and 65% of the 700 or so offered scholarships each year are rejected at 18. Even half of those who do win a full-time contract will not be playing at a professional level by 21, reckons the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA). Simply put, five out of every six on the scholarships that started in July 2010 will not be playing football for a living in five years.
If it was a university of football, with our success rates we would have been closed down by now because it's just not good enough," says Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the PFA.

In my quest for making the beautiful game perfect or as perfect as humanly possible, I'm introducing my brand of football, which I have christened 'the beautiful game with Christmanship';  CHRISTMANSHIP is to compete in the image of Christ in the way you connect with team-mates, opponents, officials and coaches. It involves competing with zeal and unmatched enthusiasm, while honouring your opponent as you play your very best.
The aim is to coach and produce better and well behaved footballer for the future, we need to show the world that we can be good at a game we invented.

Till next week

Yemi Awolola
Owner & Coach
Football Club of Riverside

Football club of Riverside is affiliated to the London Football Association and members of the Enfield Football Allliance league, season 2010/11