Swansea City AFC Foundation and Norwich City Community Sports Foundation face off in Joma Cup
Swansea City hosted the second edition of the Joma Cup last week, with walking football participants from Swansea City AFC Foundation and Norwich City Community Sports Foundation competing for the trophy.
Joma are the kit manufacturer of both Swansea City and Norwich City, providing an ideal opportunity for community and collaboration between the clubs.
The fans pulled on the famous shirts of their respective clubs in a hotly-contested match played as the Swans academy facilities on Friday evening, before the groups went to watch their senior first teams compete in the Championship on the Saturday afternoon.
While the one-hour, seven-a-side walking football match ended in a 1-1 draw, the Swans were victorious the next day with an own goal sealing three points for Luke Williams' side.
Phil Havard captained the Swansea walking football team, having been a regular attendee of the Foundation’s walking football programme, and the lifelong Swansea City supporter was delighted to see everyone come together for the fixture.
“I think it’s a dream for all of us Swansea and Norwich supporters to pull on the shirt of our club and to do that for one hour was fantastic,” said Havard.
“It was a fair result, it’s a great bunch of boys, it’s from the Foundation and from Joma to organise this match and hopefully we will have a rematch.
“We do walking football at least once a week, there is a great togetherness and everyone is so supportive of each other, if someone makes a mistake no one shouts at each other, and I could say the same of Norwich.
“I was probably one of the youngest playing at 55 years old, so it shows you the age ranges of those involved.
Robert Pratley travelled with Norwich City Community Sports Foundation for the event, and feels that such fixtures and initiatives are crucial in supporting men’s mental health.
“It was wonderful, we thought it was a long way to travel, but I will come as far as it takes to play walking football,” said Pratley.
“The game was played in a wonderful spirit, a lot of us have underlying health issues, but we can still do this without getting injured and have a fantastic time with people of a like mind.
“It’s not just physically good, it’s mentally good as well, we have a group every week in Norwich for people who have had some issues in life and it’s really good for that. Men seem to be forgotten in having a network they can talk to and this is a really good forum to do that in.
“We’ve had a fantastic weekend, coming to the academy to play, seeing the football the day after and then going home having had a wonderful time.”