If you think 90 minutes of football is long enough for a match, then imagine having to sit through – or play – a 35-hour game. The longest ever game of football ended today with a 333 to 293 scoreline. The All Stars were eventually victorious after a marathon 35 hours on the pitch against Cambray FC in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
They have now smashed the Guinness World Record for the longest match ever played – the previous record was 33 hours. The 36 footballers, who came from churches around the area, had planned to play for 40 hours, but torrential rain made the pitch unsafe. The teams were raising £30,000 to build a school for poverty-stricken children in India. All Stars player Pete Sheppard, 24, said that tiredness was the biggest hurdle. “We did a lot of intense training sessions but they don’t prepare you for how long an ordeal this is,” he said. “Ninety minutes is a long time but you are playing double that before you have a break. That last hour everyone was really counting down the minutes.”
Each squad had 18 players, who each raised £1,000 for the game, and every player had to stay on the pitch for three hours at a time. Every three hours there was a five-minute break for substitutions. And for every hour on the pitch, the players earned a five-minute break. None of the players were allowed to leave the area around the pitch so tents were pitched along the sidelines, while invigilators watched.
Cambray player Andy Champion, 37, said the game had remained competitive until the final whistle. “We started off quite fast because we were all so excited, but I was actually surprised by the pace of some of the lads hours into the game,” he said. Cambray FC, from Cambray Baptist Church, and the Cotswold All Stars, made up of players from different churches, are on target to raise £30,000.
The money will help the Dalit community in India, who are considered outcasts and denied access to public areas such as parks.
Footballer’s wife Emily McKeown, who helped organise the event, said: “Supporters have been coming through the night to watch them and have even pitched up their tents as well. The players are completely shattered and many of them have been left with injuries.We had to make the decision to stop when the rain got heavier and it became a bit too dangerous.”
Daily Mail
Vocabulary
to smash – megdönt
torrential – zuhogó (eső)
poverty-stricken – szegénység sújtotta
hurdle – akadály
pitch – futballpálya
inviligator – felügyelő
pace – iram
