A LAST-MINUTE trip to Nigeria and Kenya brought further community interaction for Jersey 2 Africa 4 Football founder Ricky Weir, on the eve of the charity’s tenth birthday.
The former Jersey FA president took advantage of the favourable connections he has made over the last decade to support two events staged by Mission89 – an organisation that specialises in research and education surrounding the exploitation and trafficking of young athletes.
Weir, who launched J2A on 18 January 2013, visited Lagos, Nairobi and Kisumu on his first trip to Africa in three years, having previously supported city and regional communities through the delivery of footballs, kit and coaching clinics.
His trip ended with an appearance at a 32-team tournament – for which J2A supplied 89 balls.
‘Mission89 were running a tournament in Kenya over the course of the World Cup and they were looking for various supporters to help with that,’ said Weir, who grew up in Scotland but had Nigerian heritage. ‘We already had 100 balls made that the Uefa Foundation had sponsored and I’d just been waiting for the right moment to distribute them, because I never randomly distribute them to anyone. Once I’d seen what Mission89 have done I said “why don’t we support you by giving you 89 footballs for the tournament?”. They were thrilled … it was way past anything on their wishlist.’
Earlier, Weir had journeyed to a conference in Lagos, Nigeria, which featured officials who help tackle trafficking, including representatives from Interpol. Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel also attended, as Mission89’s new ambassador.
‘I was just invited onto a Zoom call initially, to discuss the event, because they read about my Nigerian connection,’ Weir explained.
However, that video conversation led to plans being made to attend in person.
He added: ‘It was a space I had inadvertently been working on before. When I’ve been out there I’ve always tried to avoid the narrative of “Mister, we’ve got great young talents, please help us get them to Europe”. I close the door straight away on that because it’s futile and senseless. If you encourage that, people will believe it’s still possible.
‘I was asked to sit on a panel at their three-day event in Lagos, which I did. It was a bit of a whirlwind, if I’m honest, but I enjoyed the event and I met some really interesting people, including one who was trafficked himself when he was younger but is now one of Mission89’s ambassadors and works on loads of interesting things in terms of engaging youth and focusing on what they’ve got there, not what they’ve got somewhere else. It’s about looking at the alternatives [to trafficking]. The likelihood of a player in Africa getting into the Premier League is something like 12 in ten million, so it’s important to look at how opportunities are developed for the remaining 9,999,988.’
Discussing an action-packed Kenyan leg of his latest trip, Weir said: ‘I visited our football factory, Alive and Kicking, to see the people again. We’ve been doing things with them since 2015, including getting 100 special balls made the year of the 100th Muratti and getting them brought back here. And we also get the balls for the annual tournament that we hold here made at the factory.
‘I was made aware that when we supported them with our Bounce Back campaign during Covid, we were the only thing keeping them going for a period of time. Schools and clubs had all closed so they had no customers but we engaged corporate partners here and got balls made with Covid health messages on them. They were distributed to communities around Kenya.’
Weir also visited Nairobi’s main maximum-security prison.
‘They are doing some amazing things with football inside that prison,’ he explained. ‘They put on a special game for us and I remember being sat there thinking that if you took the walls away you could be on any football field. It doesn’t feel like you’re looking at prisoners and it was another example of the reach of football and what it can mean to people … how it can help rehabilitate and give people responsibility again.’
The delivery of ‘life-skill’ messages formed a key part of Weir’s interest in the Mission89 tournament in Kisumu, while also strengthening bonds with the Uefa Foundation. That will continue in 2023, with a renewed attempt to attract funding for an eco pitch, made using crisp packets, while there are also plans to attend the World Football Freestyle Championships in Kenya and the Homeless World Cup in Sacramento, California.
