By Sports Reporter/Doha


The GOALZ Programme held its first end of term football festival over the weekend, with the first day taking place at Al Gharafa’s training pitches on Friday November 20. The following day the tournament was held at Al Arabi’s training facilities with matches kicking off at 1pm.
The GOALZ Programme was designed to engage children of all ages in football as well as educate them about being active and staying healthy.  At the same time, the GOALZ Programme also ensures that children around the country learn about the Qatar Stars League and its 14 top division football clubs.
On Saturday, the second day of the festival, QSL Online also grabbed a few words from the Qatar Stars League representative Nasser Mubark Alkuwari who is the Community Relations Specialist.
“The GOALZ Programme is part of the QSL’s Social Responsibility strategy. The QSL conducts this football programme as part of creating a sustainable football legacy in Qatar. We want children to play football into adulthood and also at the same time support one of the local clubs here in Qatar.”
He added, “This programmes creates an opportunity for people of various nationalities to come together and play together and make friends. It really helps create a sense of community here in Doha.”
Community Department Manager James Mwale who helped organise the two festivals spoke with QSL Online and explained that the festival is the highlight of a six week football training programme.
“Today is the highlight of all the hard work that has taken place over the six weeks in the schools. Seeing all the children come here today from the various schools and play in a competitive but friendly environment. This is a celebration of all the children’s hard work and you can see that they love playing football and learning about the QSL clubs too.”
He added “This programme has been provided completely free of charge to the selected schools who are involved in the project.”