Let's all get behind Chagos Island World Cup team!

The Crawley public are getting behind a campaign to help a local football team reach a World Cup against all the odds this summer.
Chagos Island national football team SUS-161204-092710002Chagos Island national football team SUS-161204-092710002
Chagos Island national football team SUS-161204-092710002

You may not know it but Crawley is host to a national football team - the Chagos Islands - and the town plays a crucial role in the team’s historic 10,000 mile road to this summer’s CONIFA World Cup.  

Almost exactly 50 years ago the Chagossian people were forcibly removed from the Indian Ocean after their islands were sold by the British government to make way for a United States naval base. Several thousand Chagossians took the opportunity to resettle in Crawley from 2002.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The small community are united not just by their shared history of adversity, but by their shared love of football. This passion for the game led to the birth of the Chagos Islands national football team in Crawley, which consists of sons and grandsons of the ancestors who once lived nearly 6,000 miles away on the Chagos Archipelago.

Cheer Chagos campaign - the Crawley based Chagos Islanders are raising funds to take part in the CONFICA World Cup SUS-161204-092721002Cheer Chagos campaign - the Crawley based Chagos Islanders are raising funds to take part in the CONFICA World Cup SUS-161204-092721002
Cheer Chagos campaign - the Crawley based Chagos Islanders are raising funds to take part in the CONFICA World Cup SUS-161204-092721002

The team recently scored the huge achievement of qualifying for the 2016 CONIFA World Cup in Abkhazia, near Russia — a tournament for exiled and remote nations not recognised by FIFA. For the players — all amateurs training around their full time jobs and student studies—this will be their very first taste of an international football tournament and the pinnacle of their playing careers.

With only minimal funds to contribute to their flights to the World Cup, the side have set up the ‘Cheer Chagos’ campaign to help make the journey possible. The crowdfunding project - which ends this Friday - allows the public to make donations to a fund that will help as many players as possible live out the once in a lifetime chance to play for Chagos on the world stage. 

The campaign has so far raised just over £900 and has been backed by television presenter Ben Fogle and poet Benjamin Zephaniah. 

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The team have expressed their determination to represent more than Chagos alone this summer. Talismanic midfielder Ricky Louis said:

Cheer Chagos campaign - the Crawley based Chagos Islanders are raising funds to take part in the CONFICA World Cup SUS-161204-092721002Cheer Chagos campaign - the Crawley based Chagos Islanders are raising funds to take part in the CONFICA World Cup SUS-161204-092721002
Cheer Chagos campaign - the Crawley based Chagos Islanders are raising funds to take part in the CONFICA World Cup SUS-161204-092721002

“We cannot return to our Islands but we can return a trophy to our community. We can do it for Chagos and for Crawley. And we can do it together.”

You can find out more about the campaign and donate at:  https://www.igg.me/at/cheerchagos

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.crawleyobserver.co.uk

2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/crawleyobserver

3) Follow us on Twitter @Crawley_Obby

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Crawley Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.

Related topics: