Following a short break after our Youth League and All Abilities events, the ISF Football Programme team is preparing for football festival 2019. Visiting a different rural Cambodian province area each year, the festival aims to harness the power of sport to give children who lack opportunities to play regularly two days packed full of football, fun and social impact.

This peaceful field will soon be home to ISF Football Festival 2019

This year, the team will be traveling from the 27th to the 30th of August to Phnom Prek. This district in Battambang province is located 10 hours north-west of Cambodia’s capital. We’re pleased to be collaborating with Samaki School, who are hosting the tournament on their open-air countryside pitch.

The festival will be divided into different events across two days. The Best Scorer and MiniTournament will take place on the first day, with the Grassroots Festival and Social Impact activities happening on the second day. Along with 290 children, there will be a 25-person strong trainee group from our UEFA Foundation for Children – supported  Social Impact outreach project taking part in the event.

Students at Phnom Prek’s Samaki School are already practicing for the event

Now in its  7th year, the ISF Football Festival continues to  provide children who otherwise have limited opportunities to engage in sport  with a chance to play. The festival’s legacy is ensured by ISF’s coaches, who work to  build grassroots football support, share social impact lessons and coaching techniques with local coaches, and build relationships with other schools in the area. After the festival, balls and equipment are left with the host school, and non-ISF coaches taking part are invited to join ISF’s five-day social impact “train the trainer” events in the future.

We’re looking forward to this year’s festival being a success and continuing our mission of using the power of sport to improve the lives of children across Cambodia.

Read about last year’s festival in Banteay Meanchey