‘Absolute heroes’ of Portsmouth’s ‘tight’ football community praised ahead of 15th FFC charity tournament

Eight teams - all named in memory of local people who have passed away due to cancer - will compete over two weekends at Hawks’ Westleigh Park on June 6 and July 11 for the right to play in the final at AFC Portchester on August 1.

Previous years have seen matches played at Moneyfields, Fareham, Paulsgrove and Fleetlands, though the final has been played at The Crest Finance Stadium for the last few years.

Normally, the names of the eight teams - made up of local grassroots footballers - change each year. But because of the pandemic, organiser Ogilvie has rolled the 2020 teams over into this year.

The teams are named in memory of Katie Scannell, Kurt Hast, Alan Hunter, Michael Betteridge, Kev Figgins, Joe Neal, Peter Brewer and Paul Osgood.

The families of those eight people are always invited along to games and the players get to learn about their lives.

At Portchester last September, the Kurt Hast XI defeated Team Michael Betteridge 4-1 to lift the Roger Blake Cup, while the Scannell XI beat Team Alan Hunter 4-3 to win the Catherine Wood Cup.

‘’We’ve rolled it over because we didn’t think the players and the families had the full FFC experience last year due to the pandemic,’ said Ogilvie.

‘I must thank Havant & Waterlooville, who have given us the first weekend for free, and AFC Portchester have always been very accommodating.

‘I spoke to Mr Kelly (Paul, Portchester chairman) and he said it didn’t matter when the game was, it didn’t matter what the weather was, we could have the ground for the final.

‘We normally raise anything between £50-£85,000 from the tournament but this year we don’t want to put pressure on people to fundraise.

‘We want to concentrate on ensuring everyone has fun and is reminded what FFC is all about.

‘We normally have a kids funzone at the final, and once you’ve paid to come in everything is free. We want to double that in size this year.’

Ogilvie added: ‘The players are the absolute heroes of this, without them the charity would just be an idea.

‘All the teams are hand-picked out of four buckets - the buckets are titled ‘pony, ‘boring’, ‘worldy’ and ‘big time charlie’. It’s all a bit of banter.

‘WhatsApp groups are set up, managers are chosen, and the players fundraise individually or as a team.’

Ogilvie was involved with Team Scannell last year, and was delighted his side were the highest fundraising team - collecting over £20,000.

‘We had quiz nights, we had an event where the team cycled continuously around Portsmouth for 24 hours, I did a nine-hour DJ set which raised over £1,000.

‘It’s all about the squad, though - someone who raises £50 but did their best is as important as someone who raised £4,000.

‘The Portsmouth (football) community is so tight, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced anywhere else.

‘We all come together to help each other. FFC is like the Masons in that respect.

‘There’s so much more to this than just football, though it’s football which has brought us all together.

‘Next year we want to play 10 games in 10 cities in 10 days - we want to visit Birmingham, Newcastle, Leeds, Swindon.

‘We played a Welsh vets team once, that was great.

‘It’s just great to meet new people who have been brought together by some common ground - sadly, that common ground is cancer.’

All monies raised from the tournament will go towards the grants FFC hand out to individuals and/or families fighting cancer.

The charity normally hand out cheques up to £500, but in rare cases can go higher.

‘It could be helping with travel costs to get to London for appointments, or clothing, a mattress, help with bills, paying for an MOT.

‘If you have cancer, your income can go down by 70 or 80 per cent, but your bills can go up by 60 or 70 per cent.

‘So there’s a gap of 150 per cent that needs plugging.

‘It could be warm outside, but inside someone has the heating on all the time because their immune system has been affected by radiotherapy.

‘We’ve been lucky in that we’re hopefully coming out of the pandemic no better or worse off, and we’ve still been able to meet every grant request we’ve been asked for.’