One week in April I travelled to the city Kimpese in Congo Kinshasa with a group of leaders from the football school CF Gothia in Congo Brazzaville. We came here to participate in the preparation of a similar football project here. Now when we have had a few days of management training, it is extremely grateful to see how the leaders from CF Gothia share, with the others, their experiences and the knowledge they have built up through the years. 

They also tell, with joy and great pride, about the progress in Brazzaville and the development over the last 6 years since the start in 2003. In three places in the capital, 6 days of the week, the football school is open for about 500 children. A Sports Centre have been built up in the district Mfilou with a clubhouse and playing fields. A systematic job has been made to teach the children good values by teen important guidelines. These cannot be missed whether you are a part of the football school, a parent, a neighbour or a temporary visitor. They are, in fact, carved in to the walls around the school. Together with normal football practice the guidelines are a natural part of the children’s training.

You can tell that the children develop, both on the football field and as human beings. Rumours about the ”Gothia spirit” are spreading. There is something special about it and it can be summarized in the three words that the children all wear on a bracelet: Joy, Friendship and Fair Play. CF Gothia has become a positive example for building friendship and peace in a country marked by war and conflicts.

The teen guidelines

Now, it has also developed a club from the Football School that for the first time is participating in the Congolese league, Division 3. When it’s a match plenty of the children from the football school is attending, cheering and dreaming of once themselves play in the club.

This summer, for the first time, a team from the football school in Brazzaville will visit Sweden and attend at Gothia Cup. One of the 14-year olds who are in the squad, named Amour, is a profile on the team and the team captain.
- I love football and I want to love my fellow citizens, he says. Here at Gothia, we learn very good things and we get many new friends.
How do you feel about the journey to Sweden?
- Oh, it’s exciting, it is the first time we come to Europe and participate in Gothia Cup but we have prepared ourselves well. First, we have studied English and the volunteers have taught us a lot about Sweden. But above all, we have trained a lot so we hope that we can take the trophy home to Congo.

For several years the various SMU-associations, camps and churches committed to the football school in Brazzaville by donating money and collecting materials.

This summer in week 29, it will be possible to follow our team in Gothenburg when they face other teams in the world’s largest youth tournament in football, Gothia Cup.

Tomas Hammar