The Friends’ Soccer Club (FSC), is more than just a football club. For, its primary aim is to spread awareness on alcoholism and drug addiction, apart from reviving the love for the game in the locality.
Recently, the FSC organised a five-a-side football tournament in the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Chrompet.
The highlight of this being, that the players were not just young boys, but also senior players, who quit the game due to various reasons.
Talking about the need to host such a tournament in the neighbourhood, founder of FSC, George Robert, said, “Chrompet used to be a place, where there were many talented players in various number of sports. It is not the same now. We started playing football, as we were inspired by our seniors, who themselves stopped playing, as they grew older.”
“Since the number of play-grounds got reduced due to urbanisation, chances to play too came down. This leads to distractions like alcoholism and drugs. Recently, hundreds of kilos of banned products were seized from a Pammal godown. This prompted me to spread awareness on the ill- effects caused by these unhealthy practices that are common among the youth,” says George.
He added, “The five-a-side tournament had players from two age groups- 16 to 21 for junior players and above 30 for seniors. A mime show, highlighting the ill-effects of alcoholism was staged during the prize distribution ceremony. Chief guests Shrinath Srinivasan, Sunil and Narasimhan rendered speeches on the same.”
According to him, winning the tournament is not the goal. Curbing alcoholism is. “All we want is a good play-ground, equipment and a proper diet for the players. If we have these three resources, we can produce highly competitive players from our locality,” concludes George.
George Robert can be contacted at 9840254517.