FORZA ACADEMY
In 2015 I met with Charlie Pomroy who was running a great football initiative in Cambodia. We discussed starting up something with Forza and this in time resulted in Forza Academy. We had many grand and crazy ideas and ended up with an amazing project which would fit perfectly into Forzas mission to make the world of football a better place. It has been incredibly rewarding to work with the Academy and the special people within it.
MILESTONES
+2000 kids
With our grassroots programme we now reach more than 2000 kids on a monthly basis. On top of that we have another 200 regular players.
Gothia Cup
In 2017 we brought one of our teams to Gothenburg to participate in the worlds largest youth tournament, Gothia Cup.
World Record
In 2018 we had an amazing experience as we broke a world record with the help of the Academy and our passionate supporters.
WORLD RECORD
Most players in a football match
Reason: Making people proud
The majority of time you hear about Cambodia in the news it’s sadly in a negative connotation as corruption, poverty and genocide. One of our main goals with the Academy was to spread pride within the society and improve confidence. That was where the idea for this project derived from.
Idea: Break world record
With this in mind we wanted to make international noise and what better way than to break a world record? We chose the record of “most players in a football match” to show the widespread impact of the Academy. Now we needed to start planning for how to execute this in the difficult circumstance of the Cambodian countryside.
Outcome: Success!
During a couple of weeks in July 2018 we worked day and night to realise this dream. The match had to be continuous so for 85 hours we kept subbing on players until we reached the magical number of 2734 players. We had people from all ages, races, backgrounds and genders participate in this amazing milestone.
GOTHIA CUP
First ever Cambodian team to participate
Background: Making history
As Forza Football is based in Gothenburg we wanted to connect Gothia Cup, the worlds largest youth tournament, with the Academy. We decided to bring the very first Cambodian team to the tournament. This was quite the challenge considering most of our youth never even left their home town and often lack documentations etc.
Idea: Bring a team to Gothia
We did a really fun crowdfunding campaign with our users and managed to gather $30.000 to fund the project. Then there was quite the admin work to finalise all the papers and logistics but finally on a sunny day in July 2017 we met up with the kids at the airport in Gothenburg. An amazing adventure had begun.
Outcome: Success!
Since we were the inaugural Cambodian team we got to represent the country in the opening ceremony. In front of 50.000 screaming fans the kids walked out with awe on their faces. Every single part of the trip was mind-blowing and the support the team got was incredible. We are hoping to bring a girls team next!