I’m sure you are aware that video games are the devil’s work. Mainstream media would have us believe that they exist for one purpose: to ensure children meet an early demise, their morbidly obese bodies unable to move from their X-rocker, entombed in Doritos cheese dust and Mountain Dew bottles.
In a move which will no doubt be ignored by the mainstream press, Sony have teamed up with the English Schools’ Football Association (ESFA) to launch of the PlayStation Schools’ Football Cup, a huge tournament that will promote healthy exercise and get kids away from the TV screen.
Starting this September and running through to May 2014 the event will see some 100,000 children from over 2,000 schools take part in a series of nationwide U12 and U15 tournaments. This will culminate in a two day “football extravaganza” which will play host to a range of family friendly sporting activities and see the PlayStation Cup champions being crowned.
The new campaign is being fronted by Tottenham Hotspur captain Michael Dawson and aims to discover the football stars of the future. Players such as Michael Owen, Jermain Defoe, Phil Neville and Ryan Giggs have all benefited from past ESFA campaigns.
“The PlayStation Schools’ Cup tournaments will provide an important learning curve, where youngsters can test themselves against quality opposition, playing under competitive circumstances,” said Dawson. “The main thing is that they go out and enjoy their football. I urge all kids to get out there and give it a go.”
PlayStation UK’s Marketing Director, Murray Pannell, added, “We are delighted to partner with the ESFA to deliver the PlayStation Schools’ Cup. It was important for us that both boys and girls teams from ranging abilities will enjoy the honour of representing their school.”
Every school taking part in the cup will receive a PlayStation Kit Bag containing a match day football, training bibs and supporters’ flags for their team, whilst those reaching the final can also look forward to a swanky new PlayStation strip for the upcoming season.
Of course, not everyone is athletic and aspiring sports journalists – or just youngsters with two left feet – are invited to get involved by submitting their match day reports online at www.playstationschoolscup.com.
Source: Press Release
Dan Jones
What a really good idea. This part though – “aims to discover the football stars of the future” = bullshit.
Football development in England, and here in Wales for me, is terrible (which I can tell you from experience). Hopefully I’m wrong about this one though.