Muslim Charity and OVFC organise football tournament to help local cause

(Report by Dewan Choudhury from Rochdale BASA)

Muslim Charity in partnership with the Oldham Veteran’s Football Club (OVFC), and Rochdale BASA, Red Star Bengal FC and WSA organised the North’s first-ever “Over-40’s National Football Tournament” on Sunday 17th September 2017 at the impressive indoor Soccer Factory venue in Rochdale.

The event was a charity event with all proceeds going to Pennine Acute Hospital’s Charity, Stroke Unit, which provided great support to Abdul Basit (Berti) of Oldham Veterans FC, who suffered a stroke 5 months ago. Berti was present at the event in his wheelchair to everyone’s delight.

The tournament showcased veterans aged 40-50 from throughout the UK, with teams from Oldham, Rochdale, Burnley, Rossendale, Manchester, Bradford and Birmingham.

The group games were both competitive and great fun with a festival atmosphere throughout the day. Kampianos (Burnley), Jubodhol FC (Bradford), Balti Boys (Birmingham) and FC BASA (Rochdale) qualified through to the knockout stages. Red Star Bengals (Oldham), OVFC (Oldham), Boca Seniors (Burnley) and Manchester FC were unfortunate not to qualify despite all playing very well.

In the first semi-final Kampianos showed a dominant display to beat FC BASA. In the second semi-final, Jubodhol took the lead but the Balti Boy came roaring back to make a comeback to win.

The final was a very entertaining affair between Balti Boys and Kampianos. It was end-to-end football. Balti Boys took the lead but Kampianos showed resilience and perseverance to come back and defeat the brace Balti Boys. A great advert for the game. It was handshakes and hugs at the end with mutual appreciation between all the veteran legends of the game.

The results were:

• Champions: Kampianos FC (Burnley)
• Runners-up: Balti Boys (Birmingham)
• Player of the tournament: Koys Uddin (Kampionas)

The tournament raised an impressive £1,000 for new equipment at the Stroke Unit of Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. Tributes were paid to the organisers: Abdul Basit (OVFC), Jewel Miah (Red Star Bengals), Moheen Uddin (Muslim Charity), Dee (BASA), Az Khan (WSA). It was great teamwork by the organisers to successfully deliver the event.