Football and Mindspace collaborate

At a time when the community, including the young football community enter an era in which the past couple of years of restrictions and social changes due to Covid and other global tensions have changed our society the Gibraltar Football Association joined forces with the Mindspace Project to offer Gibraltar’s football grassroots a different perspective of the sport.
In collaboration with the Mindspace Project, the Gibraltar FA organized an open Christmas Youth Tournament for all children in school years 4-8 allowing also to bring some of the message the project offers.
The Mindspace Project looks at offering a holistic approach to mental, emotional and physical wellbeing, without resorting to medication as the first option.
The tournament offered an opportunity for the Mindspace Project to provide a number of different activities throughout the day with teams given a schedule which would combine football and other activities.
The interactive experience was designed to give parents and children a new experience of the game.
Anger, worry, failure, teamwork, resilience, anxiety, friendship, confidence and goals were some of the topics explored in Mindspace’s emotional regulation groups.
The charity fundraising day allowing for the workshops and activities, to provide a taster of what they do, whilst enjoying a fun interactive football tournament.
Players were assigned to teams based on their school years and classes. All teams in the tournament were limited to maximum of 10 players and each registered team managed by Gibraltar FA Coaches on the day.
The tournament was played in a 6-a-side format with the Gibraltar FA also using volunteer parents to put their names forward to referee some of the matches.
Parents were also to enjoy a match which youngsters got the chance to referee.

Images Courtesy Gibraltar FA