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Football Match between World Refugee Internally Displaced Persons (WRIDPs) XI and Arsenal Legends

24 June 2013 15:23 (UTC +04:00)

TEAS told APA that Mo Farah, the Olympic double gold medal-winning British athlete, managed the Arsenal Legends, and Fabrice Muamba, the former Bolton Wanderers footballer, managed the World Refugee IDP XI. The match attracted considerable media interest.

The match raised much-needed funds for The Refugee Council, in addition to providing assistance to the refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Azerbaijan, whose lives were disrupted by the Armenian–Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The cause was close to the heart of Mo, originally from Somalia, and Fabrice, who comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, both of whose aims were to highlight the plight of the world’s IDPs and refugees.

The Arsenal Legends team included former England and Arsenal captain Tony Adams, Ian Wright, Paul Davis, Ray Parlour, Perry Groves and Michael Thomas. Seven Azerbaijani IDPs and Syed Kemal MEP also demonstrated their footballing skills in the World Refugee IDP XI. The match was very competitive, with both teams demonstrating huge passion for the match, which ended in a 1–1 draw. There was some excellent creative tactical work in the midfield from the WRIDPs XI, with Azerbaijani IDP Vurghun Hasanzade taking his chance and scoring towards the end of the first half. Each time England and Arsenal legend Tony Adams appeared, an ecstatic crowd demonstrated their appreciation. Arsenal adopted a 4–4–2 formation throughout, a time-honoured approach that paid dividends, particularly with the equalizing goal from Ömer Riza.

At the end Cabinet Minister Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Tale Heydarov, Chairman and Founder, TEAS presented the trophies at the end.

Lionel Zetter, Director, TEAS said: “There are many more IDPs than refugees worldwide, and we wanted to use this match to highlight that point, as well as for raising money for IDPs and refugees around the world.”