De Montfort Students’ Union’s men’s and women’s football clubs came together with some famous faces to organise a charity football tournament last week.
De Montfort Students’ Union’s men’s and women’s football clubs came together with some famous faces to organise a charity football tournament last week.
The annual event, at GOALS Football Centre, raises money for the Joe Humphries Memorial Trust (JHMT) in memory of the 14-year-old who collapsed suddenly while running in 2012.
The event kicked-off with a nine versus nine match, with members of both the men’s and women’s clubs taking on a JHMT all stars team that featured celebrities that included England’s Rugby World Cup-winning captain and Leicester Tigers legend Martin Johnson, Leicestershire cricketer Paul Nixon and boxer Rendall Munroe among many other local famous faces.
The game, played 18 minutes each way to keep with the theme of JHMT’s new campaign, Go 18 for Joe, which encourages their events to use numbers of 18, to represent what would have been a landmark birthday for Joe.
Luke Taylor, Chairman of DMUFC, said that the game was a close-fought affair, with DSU’s team emerging as eventual winners.
He said: “It was a really good game, to be fair. It was good fun.
“We were 3-0 down at half-time, but managed to turn it round 4-3.
“It was really quite competitive actually, especially the second half when we were trying to get back into it.”
The tournament itself featured 32 teams competing in the men’s section, while 11 sides tried their hands at glory in the women’s competition.
Luke said that this was the biggest tournament DMUFC – with help from Dan Winney, VP Student Activities, and Sam Davis and Ross Harrison from the DSU Sports Office – had hosted in his time with the club.
He said: “It was quite hectic, we had more teams than we’d ever done before but we raised about £780. It’s the most we’ve ever raised just from GOALS.
“It was won by a team called Filthy Tekkers, a group of third team players.
“It was all in good spirits and a really good success.”
Jordan MacIntosh, a second-year Media and Journalism student, played for the Ballo-Teletubbies side, and they managed a respectable two wins and a loss from their three games.
He said: “I absolutely loved the day and would love to go back and do it again.
"It just felt very together, like all the sports teams were just having a good time.
“Any effort to raise money for JHMT is brilliant, but the fact that it involved football made it even better.”
Luke Jones, a third year Creative Writing and Journalism student, played for Chamakh My Pitch Up – who reached the last 16 before losing on penalties, echoed Jordan’s sentiments.
He said: “It’s a great charity so it’s nice to be involved but also play some football too!”
Luke Taylor said that JHMT is a charity that DMUFC is keen to support as much as they can, particularly as Joe was a keen sportsman himself, and Luke hopes that they are able to help involve young people in the charity.
He added: “Joe was a massive Leicester City fan, so there is a connection there with him and football, and sport generally.
“I was speaking to Steve Humphries [Joe’s dad] and he was saying how important it is to promote it through young people and have them driving it.
“We like to take the initiative and push it forward as much as we can, especially with young people and in sport.”
You can find out more about JHMT on their website here.