A World Record Finish

How I Spent My Final Weekend In The UK

“That’s your 200th goal for the match, Dami!”

The leading goalscorer had asked me, as current referee, to let him know when he hit this monumental milestone in the longest 5-a-side football match ever to be played. He wasn’t done yet, as there was still another half a day of play left in the match. But with 200 on his personal scorecard, Dami Oye decided to sub off the field and rotate one of the other 15 marathon footballers into the fray.

It was my final weekend in London and following an invite from Inspired4Life, Shane Levi (from Good Footballs) and I found ourselves heavily involved in helping these legends strive for a new Guinness World Record and raise funds and awareness for Cancer Research UK. The main event was a 56-hr marathon football match, playing night and day from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon.

But That’s Not All!

Inspired4Life had organised an integrative mini festival around the event, with school students from the local community getting involved in sporting and health related activities, games, music, and performances.

goodfootballs.com.au and whatshouldbazdo.com were on hand to help make the mammoth record breaking event a raging success: refereeing the main event; adjudicating from the officials box; coaching kids; and supporting with the setup of events, there wasn’t much sleep being had by anyone. But I was glad to spend my final weekend in London hanging out with these legends, and helping support something that made a difference.

This is not the first, and will not be the last, event of this kind from the guys at Inspired4Life. Founder, Kaveh Fatemian, is a highly motivated and dedicated dude! He has already completed similar world record breaking feats in the name of cancer charity research, including punching a boxing bag for 52 hours straight, and running from Paris to London.