2010 World Cup - Outside the Stadium – young people’s alternative channel

If you need a break from watching the fortune of our boys in South Africa, take a look at Outside the Stadium,  “the 100% unofficial video channel for the 2010 World Cup”. 

Made by young people from a community football programme in Paarl, Outside the Stadium takes a look at the life of young people from the underprivileged Paarl East region and the impact the tournament has on their lives.

Throughout the tournament, Outside the Stadium is showing videos filmed and produced by young people about growing up in the townships, the local football scene and the world cup.  They have already shown videos on what local  students think about the World Cup coming to South Africa; about alcohol misuse, which is common in Paarl: and the excitement around the arrival in Paarl of the World Cup’s trophy.

 The youngsters are also running a parallel tournament mirroring the real world cup with the final played on the same day. 

The children are part of the Community Football Programme, which uses football as a means to address social issues faced by children from the area, such as family breakdown, restricted access to education, gang and drug culture, unplanned teenage pregnancy and high youth unemployment levels.


So far 20 local coaches have been given support and training to improve their skills. There are now over 30 boys teams in the U13, U15 and U17 leagues and 16 teams in the girls’  league, and plans to increase the number of coaches and teams. The 1200 children in the programme also have the support of ‘life skills’ coaches who work alongside the football coaches.  The organizers hope to eventually build three full-sized and two junior pitches, a permanent office building, with storage and changing facilities and a large playground for younger children.

The Community Football Programme is run by WER in partnership with Monte Christo Ministries (MCM).  World Emergency Relief (WER) is a leading international child relief and development organisation.