It was the first time the much loved “Nerazzuri”, or any other major European club, sent coaches to Cambodia and it drew worldwide attention to the efforts to combat poverty and social deprivation through football.
One of the biggest football clubs on the planet, Inter Milan have won every honour in the game. Having two of their hugely respected coaches Gabriele Raspelli and Fabrizio Piccareta come to Cambodia was a massive coup for HFCA and made headlines all over the world.
The event attracted huge media interest, with local TV, radio and newspapers giving the training sessions significant coverage, and even the BBC dropped by to do a feature story.
During the week-long visit from November 10-14, 2008, , HFCA ran a soccer clinic for 60 children (aged 12 to 18) from disadvantaged backgrounds, in conjunction with a number of other organisations. A coaching workshop also took place for 20 local coaches.
Five of the Players that attended the clinics went to Melbourne to take part in the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne 2008.
The children come from the following organisations
A huge effort was made by a lot of people to make sure everything ran according to plan and HFCA are very grateful to NISC (Northbridge International High School) and in particular NISC manager Laurie Karatau for his support during the week and for lettting HFCA use their fantastic facilities. We also want to thank the FCC's Anthony Alderson for all his support in the lead up to the week of coaching. Thanks to our assistant coaches Jimmy and Sam. Thanks to Riverkids Sophon, CCH Mech Sokha and Happy School Chi Phalla for all their hard work. Funny Sonny was fantastic as our translator/fixer and kept our spirits high with his funny stories about Cambodia. Finally thanks to Iccy Harrington for his great logistical work.
Check out all the pics here
