For love of football

SHANE WENZLICK

FIELD OF OPPORTUNITY: Gavin Findlay is looking for help to get 300kg of football gear shipped to South Africa for disadvantaged children in Johannesburg.

GOING to the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a bunch of colleagues from around the country was always going to be a trip of a lifetime for Gavin Findlay.

But little did he know how much the trip was going to impact on the lives of hundreds of disadvantaged children.

From Scotland originally, Mr Findlay has always been mad on football and had an "absolute desire" to get to the World Cup.

"We needed to have about $11,000 each and only had a few months to do it. Forking out to go the football World Cup isn't really in the New Zealand psyche.

"While the whole country was behind the All Whites' success, there were only about 400 to 500 people going over."

Being a proud "kilted Kiwi", Mr Findlay runs the New Zealand Celtic Supporters Club and naturally he had hopes of organising a friendly match with the Johannesburg Celtic Supporters Club run by Bill McIntosh.

Mr McIntosh moved from Glasgow to South Africa as a child in 1965. He never lost his love for Celtic despite being so far away. Eventually formed the Caxton Celtic team, a team made entirely of black players and a target for discrimination in the days of apartheid.

His commitment to spreading the love of football around the country saw him eventually form the Bhoys for Africa Charitable Trust.

It's dedicated to distributing donated football gear to less fortunate kids in a bid to create a more positive and fun-loving environment for them.

So naturally when the Kiwis heard of the trust's work, they wanted to contribute.

"We did an appeal to the local football clubs to hand over any unwanted gear and took as much as the airline would allow," Mr Findlay says.

But they couldn't take it all and there's 300kg more waiting to be shipped to the needy kids.

"Our plan was to play the local Celtic club and then hand over the sports gear."

The team ended up in Diepsloot, home to about 150,000 people, many of whom live in 3m by 2m shacks assembled from scrapmetal, wood, plastic and cardboard.

City officials estimate half the population in the settlement is unemployed, Mr Findlay says.

"Meeting the team and the children there was just such a humbling experience. Here they were in their raggedy clothes and bare feet with big smiles on their faces happy to see us," Mr Findlay says.

"The kids were just so well behaved and lined up so nicely as we gave them their boots and tops and were just so appreciative."

As expected there were more children than gear but there's still the excess gear left back in New Zealand, he says.

"So now we want to hear from a friendly freight company who might be happy to help get this extra gear over because it's desperately needed and moving 300kg worth of gear can be reasonably expensive.

"The more we get to them, the more they can play."

Mr Findlay wants to hear from anyone who can offer any help to get the gear to Mr McIntosh and the Bhoys for Africa organisation.

Email gavinf@hot.co.nz or call him on 296-0296.

- © Fairfax NZ News