Football (kick for a cause) tournament

A team of 12 students from the 12th Grade organized a five-a-side soccer tournament in our school. All 12 people were really passionate about soccer and service, which led to the success of the tournament. The tournament was held in our school and was open to anyone above the age of 12. We held two tournaments, an U-15 and a16 and above tournament. There were 8 and 16 teams in each category respectively. Initially, we faced a lot of resistance from school. Our school has a strict policy against cash transactions, which was a major hurdle. But, after constant convincing, Mr. Choonawala gave in. Also, our passion for the project convinced them that we could get the tournament right.

Another part of the planning was deciding the final use of the money we collected. After extensive research, we decided to donate the collections to SlumSoccer. This is an NGO which specializes in the development of sports infrastructure for the underprivileged. Another barrier we faced was deciding the medium of the provision of food. We needed to make sure that the source was reliable, and the quality of food was appropriate. However, we took the challenge and managed to make the tournament a success. An issue regarding ethics came across as we decided whether we wanted to make the tournament a success by making it a good tournament or raising the maximum funds possible. We decided to maintain a balance between the two. We got international footballers like John Arne Riise and Elano to promote our tournament through videos on social media. These videos from the footballers, increased the tournament's awareness, in turn increasing the registrations. Also, each member of the organizing team reached out to teenagers in almost every school in Mumbai. After successfully getting the total of 24 teams, we had to reach out to sponsors to raise more money. Rajwada Thal agreed to sponsor the provision of food. Moreover, we got several sponsors like Chennaiyan FC, Future Group, National Plastic Industries, Princeware International and King Pong TT. Each sponsor donated generous amounts in return for advertising places. We thank all our sponsors for their significant contributions.

The success of the tournament was directly dependent on our commitment to the project. We were all very committed, as we worked on convincing the school authorities of the safety of the tournament, getting every aspect right - the presence of food and the refereeing; obtaining sponsorships which would reduce our cost, and most importantly spending hours on Facebook inviting people to come to the tournament. In the end, we made a profit of approximately Rs. 66,000 and the tournament was a huge success. It was very enjoyable and raised a lot of money. We would also like to thank Mr. Manoj Kumar and Mr. Sreeraman as they were the guiding pillars in our journey. Without their support, our tournament was unlikely to be as successful as it turned out to be. They helped us with convincing the Heads of our school to give us permission, and ensured that we did not face any grave difficulties.