The head coach of Olympafrica Serekunda East Futbol-Net, Ebrima Jatta has his eyes set on winning this weekend’s International Futbol tournament featuring teams from the host Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Jatta, who led the team last when The Gambia hosted the tournament, is confident his team can win the two-day event which starts from 7th to 8th of July. “We have been training so hard for this tournament,” he tells The Chronicle. “Right now the boys can’t wait to showcase what they have. We have to respect all the participating teams, but I’m sure that we will triumph,” he says
In Futbol Net, each team field seven players; five boys and two girls. There’s no referee and the players must to agree on the six values of the game; respect, teamwork, tolerance, responsibility, effort and commitment.
Like handball rules, a Futbol-Net game can go for either penalty or free kick if serious fouls are committed. Interestingly, if a girl scores a goal it’s recorded as two goals. But if a boy scores, it’s recorded as a single goal.
FutbolNet is a methodology for social intervention created by the Barça Foundation in 2011. According to the foundation, “the methodology uses soccer and other sports-related activities as tools for reflection and agents of change to improve the life of children and young people who are in vulnerable contexts.”
