Soccer team on target for its community

Jackey Man on the attack in the London Chinese Community Center Football Club's midweek win. [HUANG QINCHEN/CHINA DAILY]

In 2010 a few Chinese Londoners got together and formed a five-a-side football team - one of thousands in the capital - so they could socialize and enjoy an evening kick-about. Six years later, the team has been on international tours, hosted tournaments at Wembley, and raised thousands of pounds for the UK's Chinese community.

Still essentially a motley-crew of lads looking for a kick-about, the London Chinese Community Center Football Club today is testament to the ability of sport to bring about change.

"Most of us were unaware that there was such a thing as the Chinese Community Center until we joined up to the team," says Mikey Liu, a policy advisor from Wales whose parents are from Hong Kong. Brought together by the football club, Liu and the majority of its 40-strong squad now volunteer at the community center in London's Chinatown, which works primarily with youths and the elderly from the capital's large and disparate Chinese community.

"The kids come from quite far away to the community center where I help them with their homework," said Richard Wong, an editor from Leicester.

The team's match this week is against a real estate company and it's a tense encounter. The game is level at one-all when Liu wins a free kick following a crunching challenge. Police officer and front man Kwok Ho slots the set piece home and the LCCCFC begins to pull away, with star winger Jackey Mana web developer from Scotland-bagging his hat-trick and the game ending at 4-2.

"The football team is an extension of the community spirit we have and I hope you can see the doggedness and will-to-win in our game, attributes which are relevant in many overseas Chinese," said manager Alan Lau.

The LCCCFC now hosts the annual Chinese Community Challenge Cup at the five-aside Wembley Power league sports facility. This year, 32 teams participated, raising thousands of pounds for the youth arm of the Chinese community center.

"It's a struggle because some of the (government) funding has been cut for the center, so it needs every penny it can get. Part of our mission is to get the name out, both in the country and abroad," said Rob Lee, who is an accountant.

The LCCCFC has flown to Amsterdam and just returned from its first tour of Hong Kong. Despite achieving a level of success few expected, Jackey Man says they still need what many buddy-built five-a-side teams are after: "You can put this in your story - decent goalkeeper wanted, please apply!"