ISF Community League 2022
To bring sports opportunities to marginalised youth around Phnom Penh
ISF Cambodia announces 2022’s fourth Community League opening
On Sunday 2nd of October, ISF Community League kicked off its 2022 season. Held at ISF Sports Ground, this two-month League welcomed 350 youth athletes from across Phnom Penh. The ISF Community League will come to an end on Sunday, 27 November, and players will gather once again for Semifinal and Finals matches.
This is the fourth year that ISF Cambodia has organised the Community League. The football event offers opportunities to young athletes from poor communities around Phnom Penh to play football in a safe environment whilst learning vital life skills such as teamwork, leadership, problem-solving and communication. Despite the rain during the matches, all players still did their best to show their ability and passion for sports, making this event a smashing success with a lot of cheers and smiles from football fans.
Speaking on the importance of this year’s Community League, ISF Football Programme Manager Samedy Yin explained: “Like any other year, the ISF Football Team and I are thrilled to welcome all players to compete in 2022 ISF Community League. I believe that this event will bring joy to all of them as well as give them an opportunity to show their ability and talents whilst making more friends.”
ISF’s Sports Ground was built in response to the lack of pitch facilities in Phnom Penh; land holders often reneged on pitch rental agreements last minute and flooding often made pitches unusable during the rainy season. In order to secure the Football Programme activities and the lifeline that they provide to so many young people throughout Cambodia, ISF developed its own pitch in Preah Theat Village, Sangkat Rolous, Khan Dongka in 2016.
When we first opened our Sports Ground, troubled youth from surrounding communities did not cooperate with us: they started arguments and fights, they were using our grounds without permission, damaging our facilities, and they were often consuming alcohol or smoking on our premises. Our staff were concerned about their safety.
We seek to ensure our holistic programming of activities does not exist in a vacuum but instead serves to lift up the wider community. We started organising meetings to find out the root causes of their behaviour and to better meet their needs. Much of the population living in those communities have limited access to quality education. Unhealthy behaviours such as alcohol and substance abuse, gambling, and domestic violence are common. We saw this as an opportunity to make a long-lasting change in these communities.
Even though access to organised sport and decent playing fields was limited in those areas, youth had a real interest in playing football. We began renting out our Sports Ground to them for a very low price, so they could train and play football. Since 2017, we have also been running an annual Community Football League to provide opportunities for these players to compete. From September to October each year, we deliver football competitions for over 200 youths who would otherwise not have the opportunity to participate in organised sport. Through football games and activities, we teach them about healthy living and the danger of alcohol, smoking, substance abuse and gambling. They also learn core values such as inclusion, equality, respect and friendship as well as develop key skills and qualities including teamwork, leadership, resilience and confidence.
Since 2017, we have seen a real change in these communities who have adopted healthier behaviours on and off the pitch and now respect and understand others. They now value our staff and have helped raise awareness about ISF as well as share information on our Sport Ground to other teams, which have begun hiring our pitches. All proceeds have gone directly towards covering the football field’s upkeep so ISF could continue to deliver their life-changing programmes and impact thousands of underprivileged children every year.
The Community League allows us to introduce the power of football to more youth, strengthen relationships within the local communities, and build the capacity of our coaches. With your support, ISF can continue providing this rare opportunity to participate in organised sport for players regardless of their background.
