Welcome

Welcome to the website of Onagawa Supporters.

We are a UK-based group of friends of Onagawa, a small town in north-east Japan that was destroyed by the tsunami of 11 March 2011. Onagawa Supporters aims to raise funds for the rebuilding of the community through its football club, Cobaltore Onagawa. The club was started in 2006 by Koichi Ohmi, also president of the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun newspaper, with the purpose of engaging and enthusing young people in the community, so as to sustain the long-term future of a modest provincial fishing town.

If you haven’t visited our site before, please read The Onagawa Story first. It’s a quick explanation of the background to the town, what happened to Onagawa on 11 March, community efforts to recover from the disaster – and why Cobaltore Onagawa are such a key part of this process.

The site will include regular news updates about the Onagawa Supporters campaign, about the town and Cobaltore Onagawa. Please check back often, or put OnagawaSupporters.com into your RSS feed reader.

If we’re to make a real difference in securing the future of Onagawa in the aftermath of the tsunami, we need your help. You can make a donation to Onagawa Supporters by Paypal, credit card or bank transfer – details are on the right-hand side of this page.

You can email Onagawa Supporters in English or Japanese at onagawasupporters@hotmail.co.uk . We are also on Twitter @OnagawaSapo and Facebook.

Cobaltore Derby Triumph

League Game 2/14, Sun 29 April

Cobaltore Onagawa 3-1 Marysol Matsushima

0-1 Yuta Komatsu 9′
1-1 Kei Yoshida 57′
2-1 Reiji Nakajima 61′
3-1 Kei Yoshida 81′

Cobaltore Onagawa’s winning start to the 2012 league season continued on Sunday with a 3-1 victory over near neighbours Marysol Matsushima at Onagawa’s municipal stadium. The visitors took an early lead through a penalty by midfielder Yuta Komatsu, but Cobaltore took control after half-time. Veteran captain Reiji Nakajima contributed a spot kick of his own and star forward Kei Yoshida added two more goals to add to the pair he scored against FC Parafrente Yonezawa last weekend. All of which means that the boys in blue take their position at the top of the Tohoku League Division 2 (South):

1. Cobaltore Onagawa 6pts (+7)
2. Bandits Iwaki 4 (+2)
3. FC Scheinen Fukushima 3 (+1)
4. Marysol Matsushima 3 (-1)
5. Sendai Nakada 3 (-1)
6. Merry 2 (-2)
7. FC Parafrente Yonezawa 1 (-5)
8. Iwaki Furukawa FC 0 (-1)

The First Game!

League Game 1/14, Sun 22 April

Cobaltore Onagawa 5-0 FC Parafrente Yonezawa

1-0 Kei Yoshida 17′
2-0 Kei Yoshida 39′
3-0 Kosuke Yano 70′
4-0 Seiya Narita 80′
5-0 Daichi Ida 86′

Cobaltore Onagawa got off to a sensational start to the 2012 league season, defeating FC Parafrente Yonezawa 5-0 in their opening Tohoku League Divison 2 (South) fixture on Sunday. The people of Onagawa turned out for the game in force, a club-record crowd of 520 underlining the importance of the football team as a focus for their local community.

The 11 March tsunami destroyed Onagawa town, so having withdrawn from league football for the 2011 season the match constituted a return to business as usual for the Cobaltore first team. Players such as Yosuke Takizawa and Reiji Nakajima, who in the months after the disaster moved temporarily to clubs in other parts of Japan, returned as promised to take their place in the Cobaltore team – and so make their contribution to the rebuilding of Onagawa.

The game against Parafrente was held at the municipal stadium, which escaped damage from the tsunami due to its location on a ridge above the town. 2-0 up at half time through goals by striker Kei Yoshida, Cobaltore were roared on by a nosiy crowd and rounded off their triumph with three more in the last twenty minutes.

Some might say it’s only a football match, and ask what good it does following not only the tsunami but also decades of economic decline in the area. But this is to miss the point of Cobaltore Onagawa as a focus of community engagement and activity in a town fighting for a future. As a new supporters’ banner on display at the match proudly pronounced, We Are Onagawa.

Game highlights

Interview with Reiji Nakajima (JPN)

22 April 2012 photos

Cobaltore 2012

Cobaltore Onagawa have released details of their 2012 league fixtures. The first team will be playing in Division 2 (South) of the Tohoku League, exactly as would have happened if the 11 March 2011 tsunami had not struck. The first team have been busy preparing for the start of the league season and, as can be seen from this recent video clip, clearly are excited about the prospect of playing competitive football again. By so doing, of course, Cobaltore reverts to its longstanding aim to ensure a future for the town of Onagawa. Go Cobaltore!

Cobaltore Onagawa Tohoku League Division 2 (South) Fixtures

22 Apr H v FC Parafrente Yonezawa
29 Apr H v Marysol Matsushima
06 May H v Iwaki Furukawa FC
13 May H v Merry
20 May H v Bandits Iwaki
27 May H v Sendai Nakada SC
17 Jun A v FC Parafrente Yonezawa
01 Jul A v Marysol Matsushima
09 Sep A v Iwaki Furukawa FC
23 Sep A v Merry
07 Oct A v Bandits Iwaki
14 Oct A v Sendai Nakada SC
21 Oct H v Scheinen Fukushima
28 Oct A v Scheinen Fukushima

Cobaltore Restart!

Cobaltore Onagawa have confirmed that the club’s first team will take part in regular league competition in 2012. It is planned that the team will play in Division 2 (South) of the regional Tohoku League – as was the case for 2011 prior to Onagawa town being destroyed by the tsunami on 11 March. As part of their preparations, Cobaltore have arranged a series of trials throughout December and January in order to identify potential new players.

But they have already started playing first team matches again. On Sunday 18 December, Cobaltore Onagawa staged a friendly against Miyagi Prefectural League team Sendai Sasuke FC at the same Onagawa municipal stadium that was used by Self Defence Force troops as a base for their activities in the weeks following the tsunami. Highlights of Cobaltore’s 5-4 defeat of Sendai Sasuke can be seen on the Youtube clip below.

Then and now がんばれ!女川

Combination photos of Onagawa taken March 16, 2011 (top) after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and its aftermath taken June 3, 2011 and September 1, 2011, (bottom), all taken by Kyodo and released September 7, 2011, ahead of the six month anniversary this weekend since the disaster. REUTERS/Kyodo

組合せ写真 上段 3月16日2011年 3月11日の地震、津波の後。中段写真 6月3日2011年 下段写真 大災害半年の直前、7日、9月 ロイター・共同撮影

11 September 2011 is a day overloaded with memories for people all round the world.  It is of course the 10th anniversary of what history has come to know as 9/11, but for Japan, it will mark half a year since the combined events – the earthquake, the tsunami, and the nuclear aftermath – that stunned the nation and left 20,000 dead or missing.  Here’s our update on how Onagawa has fought back, and how you can still show your support for those struggling to go back to something like life before 3/11.

組合せ写真 上段 3月16日2011年 3月11日の地震、津波の後。中段写真 6月3日2011年 下段写真 大災害半年の直前、7日、9月 ロイター・共同撮影 

2011年9月11日は世界の人々が多くの記憶を負わされた日である。もちろん9/11 Nine Elevenとして歴史に知られる(ニューヨーク、双子ビルへのテロ攻撃)10周年記念日であるが、日本にとってこの日は、国民を呆然とさせ、2万人の死や行方不明を残した地震、津波、原発余波からの半年たった記念する日です。ここに、女川の人が闘い、また、どのように、3月11日前のような生活に戻るために奮闘している女川の人々を支援できるのか、私達は記事を更新した。

No going back

Some things have changed forever.  The Tohoku coastline has permanently subsided, in the case of Onagawa by a meter, and as a result high tides will now flood parts of what used to be the town, as this photograph taken by Cobaltore manager Kouichi Ohmi shows.

いくつかのことは永遠に変わっていく。東北海岸はほぼ永久に沈下、女川の場合は1メートル、その結果、かっては町であった部分は高潮のたびに海水で覆われている。写真は、コバルトーレ、マネジャー近江さんが取ったもの

In spite of this, the building shown here, MarinePal, Onagawa’s very own SeaLife aquarium, plans to reopen on 7 October and has its own Facebook page and website. 

これにも関わらず、写真で示した建屋、マリンパル、女川の水族館は10月7日に再オープンする計画である。そのFacebookとウェブサイトはこちら。Marine Pal. 

Thousands of people lost their homes and many of them still have nowhere to go, so they are staying in evacuation centres.   Many volunteers are working hard to improve conditions both in the centres and in the container homes which have been hastily put up.  Among these volunteer groups, VAN (Voluntary Architects Network ) http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_NEWS/SBA_van.htm began a major project at Onagawa on 24 August, and you can see their photo diary by following VAN on Facebook.

数千人の人が家を失い、そのうち多くの人は今なお行くところが無く、避難センターで暮らしている。多くのボランティアはその避難センターや急いで立ち上げたコンテナー家屋の状態の改善に熱心に働いている。これらのボランティアグループのうち、VAN (Voluntary Architects Network ) http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_NEWS/SBA_van.htm は8月24日に重要なプロジェクトを開始した。詳細はウェブサイト、フェースブックを参照。

Finding what was lost

Many of the missing have been identified among the dead over the last six months.  This process, like that at New York’s Ground Zero, has of necessity been based on DNA matching .  For some Onagawa families, this has meant holding multiple funeral ceremonies months apart.  This process is still going on and will continue as long as there is still a chance of giving the families of the missing some closure.

過去半年の間に、遺体の中から多くの行方不明者が認識されている。この方法は、ニューヨーク、グランドゼロでのようにDNA照合を元のしたものが必要です。これは女川の家族の人たちには、数ヶ月離れていくつかのお葬式を持つことを意味する。そしてこの方法は、今も続き、これからも不明者の家族に見つかる機会がある限り続きます。

Living with the sea

Onagawa was always dependent on the sea for its living, and fishermen are putting to sea again in time for the autumn catch of tasty sanma.   The catch this season is potentially as good as it has always been.  However, as if the tsunami aftermath was not enough, Onagawa is also home to a nuclear power station which was compromised during the disaster, and has had to subject the fishing catch to radiation tests.  In addition to government inspection, the local fishing industry has been carrying out its own tests in the hope of reassuring consumers that their catch is safe to eat.

Meanwhile, the regular ferry service to the sacred island of Kinkasan has restarted and there are even hopes of attracting ‘tsunami tourism’.

女川の人はいつも生計を海に頼ってきた。そして漁師の人達は、美味しい秋刀魚とるのに間に合うよう海にでている。今年の漁獲はかって取れたと同じような可能性がある。しかしながら、あたかも津波の余波では足りなかったように、女川は、また災害の間、妥協させられた原子力発電所の町である。そして、漁獲の放射能テストに委ねざるを得なく、政府の検査に加え、地元漁協は消費者に魚の安全を食べてもらうことを願って自前の検査をしている。

話は変わって、聖なる金華山への定期フェリー船は再開し、津波観光への願いもある。

Cobaltore news

How about Cobaltore, the Onagawa football team that’s been the focus of the OnagawaSupporters campaign ?  With the first team unable to play this season, players who spent the early weeks and months helping out in the town have by now inevitably had to look elsewhere, and their star player, Reiji Nakajima, is currently playing for JFL team V-Varen Nagasaki.  Will Cobaltore play next season ?  At this point in time it’s impossible to say.  Meanwhile their training park has been refurbished with financial support from the local Hibishinbun newspaper – thanks again to Mr Ohmi for this picture.    And during August, the younger players have enjoyed an outing to Kanagawa prefecture to play football there at the invitation of local sympathisers.  Their schedule of training and games for the coming months is busy, and so Cobaltore continues to make a major contribution as a resilient community recovers from disaster.

女川サポーターズの焦点であるコバルトーレサッカーチームはどうなのか?今期はプレイできない状態で、数週間、数ヶ月の間町で誰かの仕事をしていた選手達は、今ではどこかを探さざるを得ないし、そしてチームのスタープレーヤ、中島礼司はJFL V-Varen長崎で現在プレーしている。コバルトーレは来期プレーするのだろうか?現時点で言うことは不可能である。一方、彼らの練習場は日々新聞社からの経済的支援を受け再建している。近江様に写真提供を再度感謝。そして8月、若い選手達は、神奈川県の支持者の招待で試合を楽しんでいる。彼らの来る数ヶ月のトレーニング計画や試合は忙しい。そして、コバルトーレは災害から回復する元気な共同体にと、大きく貢献することを続ける。

What you’ve done for Cobaltore and Onagawa

Life goes on, and already the muddy voids left behind by the bulldozers are being reclaimed by flowers.  Like all regions devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, Onagawa and Ishinomaki qualify for major programs of reconstruction and funding from the Japanese government.   As the time for fundraising gives way to the time for rebuilding, we think the time has also come to bring this phase of our campaign to a close.  We will not seek direct donation via this website in the future, but we can suggest ways that you can help – see the links below.

皆さんはコバルトーレと女川に何をしてきたのか。生命は続いていく、ブルドーザーに置き去りになった泥だらけの空地にはすでに花達に埋め尽くされている。 地震や津波で荒廃した全ての地域のように、女川、石巻は日本政府からの再建基金プログラムを受ける。私達は、募金を集める時期から再建の時期に道を譲るの で、キャンペーンの段階を終わらせる時と思う。私達は今後に、このウェブサイトで直接的に募金を集める道を求めないと思う、しかし、皆さんは他の方法(下 記のリンク)で支援ができることをお勧めしたい。

As a result of your contributions, we have been able to support Cobaltore to the tune of £4382.  This has been used entirely to support the work of the U12, U15 and U18 teams by equipment purchase.  Additionally, thanks to the generosity of St Mary’s International School, Tokyo, the training park where these teams play have been equipped with goalposts.

Thank you very much to everyone who donated.

皆さんの献金の結果、4,382英国ポンドの大金を支援に使うことができ、それらは、U12, U15,そしてU18チームへのサッカー器具の購入に充てた。更に、St Mary’s 国際スクール東京の寛容さのおかげで、これらのチームがプレーするトレーニングパークにゴールポストを装備した。

寄付していただいた人々に、深く感謝申し上げます。


What you can do now

  • We will continue to bring you news of what’s happening with Cobaltore and in Onagawa – please visit us often.
  • If there’s something you would like to do to help either Cobaltore or Onagawa with the long job of recovery, please let us know.  You can contact us on Facebook, Twitter or email.  We’ll make sure no offer of help is wasted.
  • You can follow the fortunes of Cobaltore on their own website, www.cobaltore.com.  If you don’t read Japanese, try Google Translate !  It does an excellent job.
  • You can make donations directly to the Voluntary Architects Network
  • You can of course make donations to the Japanese Red Cross
  • You can check out the bracelets made from fishing nets by Tohoku survivors at the Sanriku Shigoto project
  • 私達は、コバルトーレで起きていることのニュースを届け続けます。訪問下さい.
  • もし、再建への長期仕事でコバルトーレ、あるいは女川を助けることが何かあるなら、お知らせ下さい。Face book, Twitter, Mailで連絡下さい。私達は、申出を無駄にすることはありません。
  • コバルトーレのホームページ www.cobaltore.com.
  • 直接の寄付 Voluntary Architects Network 
  • もちろん、日本赤十字にも献金できます。Japanese Red Cross
  •  三陸に仕事を!プロジェクト 浜のミサンガ 環 Sanriku Shigoto project

がんばれ! 女川

Cobaltore Player Interview

Friend of Onagawa Supporters Stephen Phelan has been in touch from Onagawa again, this time following on from a meeting with Cobaltore player Atsunori Higaki, who is also on the club’s coaching staff. Stephen takes up the story of their conversation…

“I spent most of the morning of Tuesday 19th July with Higaki at the current Cobaltore HQ, a small prefab building in the Ishinomaki Tomorrow Business Park. I took some photos of him, including two with the Cobaltore home and away shirts that he found in the ruins of the old clubhouse after the tsunami. They are both his shirts – number 6. The white away strip has been washed but it’s still carrying muddy stains from 11th March.

“On the day of the tsunami, Higaki was actually in the clubhouse building, right on the waterfront where the waves came in. He’s originally from Hiroshima and had no experience of tsunamis, so he thought he would be safe enough to go up to the second floor and take some pictures. Somebody local asked him what the hell he was doing and told him to get out of the building. When the tsunami did come in, about 18 minutes after the initial earthquake, it annihilated the clubhouse and most of the buildings around it, one of which was actually toppled over onto it.

“In the months since the tsunami, Higaki says that about half of his first team has had to leave Onagawa, and go back to their respective home towns across Japan. He can’t field half a squad, and he’s not sure if he will have a fully replenished roster by the start of next season in April either, but he says he think that it is vitally important to get the remaining players out practicing again, so that people can at least see that the team was not destroyed and is still a going concern. He says that Cobaltore has important symbolic value in this respect, and the survival of the team badge stands as an emblem of the town itself.

“In the meantime, he’s been concentrating on the youth teams, with training sessions at the first Onagawa junior high school every Tuesday and Thursday. He also said that he’s been thinking of starting a girl’s team to capitalise on the heightened interest among local mums and daughters after Japan’s triumph in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday.”

Onagawa, early July

So four months on from the tsunami, how is Onagawa? Friend of Onagawa Supporters Stephen Phelan is spending July in the town, participating in relief work. Stephen has kindly allowed us to use these photographs that he has taken in just the last few days, which demonstrate the scale of the catastrophe – and the fact that its impact will without question be felt for a very long time to come.

The images also serve to underline the importance of long-term engagement with the young people of the town. If Onagawa is to have a future, Cobaltore Onagawa has a major role to play not only as a symbol of the rebirth of a community, but as a practical way of involving local youngsters. It’s against the backdrop of these pictures that Cobaltore continue to organise training sessions, soccer schools and competitive matches for their young teams.

If you want to help Cobaltore Onagawa secure the future of their small home town, please consider donating to us at Onagawa Supporters. All funds raised will go straight to Cobaltore – you don’t need a Paypal account to give, but just click the Donate button on the right-hand side of this page and follow the instructions.

Looking towards Onagawa town hall

Water floods the area close to the harbour at high tide because all the sea defences have been destroyed

We love Onagawa – enough to protect an ancient cherry tree

Stephen Phelan wrote this must-read article for the Scottish Review of Books about a trip to Onagawa in April.

Northern Leagues United: the Video

With many, many thanks to Scott at The Footy Blog.net, here’s a fantastic video from the Northern Leagues United fundraising event at Birtley Town FC on 9th July. The programme includes:

  • highlights of the Northern League Fans v Football Writers match
  • the awarding of the Onagawa Cup to the winning captain
  • representatives of Onagawa Supporters delivering a message direct from Cobaltore Onagawa
  • player interviews, including Northern Leagues United co-organisers Michael and Andy Hudson

Charity Football Match (Northern Leagues United) 2011 from Philip Johnston on Vimeo.

Link: Blog Video – the Big Match! @ The Footy Blog.net

From Birtley to Japan – a day to remember

What happens when a football team made up entirely of football writers, bloggers, tweeters and journos gets together to play football against a team made up entirely of fans, in support of a worthy cause ?  If you want to know what the resulting football is like, please read no further but go straight to Northern Leagues United, where you can see a gallery of photos and links to post-match coverage.  This is an OnagawaSupporters view of the most memorable day in our campaign so far, but the hacks have already said all there is to say about the football so we’ll take it as read that a good time was had by all.  (And by the way, the hacks were soundly thrashed by the fans ).

Torrential rain had been forecast, yet the day started fine and more or less stayed that way.  Birtley Town FC men and women had turned out very early to tackle the unglamorous but necessary tasks of raising tents, making sandwiches, brewing tea, setting up the PA system,  and getting the clubhouse in sparkling form to host the club’s first event since refurbishment.  When OnagawaSupporters arrived, the bacon butty, burger and chip van had just started serving and did a brisk trade throughout the day.  There was no shortage of advance publicity for the Northern Leagues United game with press coverage in the South Shields Gazette, the Northern Echo, and BBC Radio Newcastle’s Total Sport, not to mention a piece on the Newcastle United fans’ website, nufc.com. The Birtley ground was decorated with English and Japanese flags and of course, the magnificent Onagawa Cup was on display, reflecting back the splendour of the FA Vase brought along specially for the occasion by players and supporters from three-time winners, Whitley Bay.

Cobaltore Onagawa had sent us a selection of the few items still left on their shelves after the big wave had passed through their storehouse. By the end of the first game,   Birtley Under 17′s vs. Birtley Under 18′s, OnagawaSupporters had set out these wares,  alongside donated T-shirts, classy-looking programmes, books by Ian Cusack (‘Village Voice’) and Mark Cowan (‘Far from the Massive Crowds’), plus raffle tickets, and were ready for customers.  Cobaltore pin badges were immediately snapped up and one was soon sported by @el_quesogrande whose headgear attracted the attention of several cameras.

The Man with the Hat

Cobaltore towel mufflers proved the most popular items on sale. A poignant detail is that several of these were donated back to Cobaltore by youth team players or their families and were marked with the young player’s name.  An offer to sign the mufflers with the new owner’s name in Japanese katakana script proved even more popular and the last muffler was soon snapped up.  As the main event kicked off, the crowd numbers grew and the word spread, meaning that OnagawaSupporters were kept busy selling things and had to rely on the brilliant wisecracking commentator for coverage of the fans against writers game.  We did catch glimpses of the writers’ team warming up and they looked as if they meant business, but as we now know, they were no match for the supporters’ team, possibly because they were all too busy planning their next tweet to think about what they were doing on the pitch.

Writers Warm Up

In no time at all, the game was over and it was time to present the Cup to fans’ captain Adam Taylor-Christensen and the champagne to the Men of the Match, NL Fans defender Danny Newell and the writers’ Paul Fraser. There was a sympathetic silence while the message from Cobaltore Onagawa was delivered in Japanese and English, and then it was on to the third game, the Birtley vs. Ryton & Crawcrook friendly. Ryton secretary Ken Rodgers explained to us that he had donated Ryton’s share of the day’s takings to our cause, so we were delighted when Ken won the top raffle prize, a pair of tickets for the hospitality suite at Blackburn Rovers.

As the day drew towards its end, with a win for the home side, Birtley and Whitley Bay entrusted OnagawaSupporters with shirts signed by the whole team. These are on their way to Cobaltore as a memento of the Birtley event and will be followed in the very near future by the days’ proceeds, which after sharing with Birtley turned out to be a very impressive £500.

Birtley and Ryton and Whitley Bay aren’t big, rich football clubs. They can’t afford even a fraction of the kind of money that clubs in the Premier Leagues throw around. But what they are rich in, incredibly rich, is the grassroots generosity of spirit that bridges continents and gives joy to everyone who gets involved. Northern Leagues United day was that kind of day, and as we made our way home down the A1, we didn’t forget to say a big thank you to the Angel of the North and the fantastic people of England’s North East who made this event possible.

Angel of the North, Birtley

PS. If you too would like a souvenir program or T-shirt from Northern Leagues United please email us at onagawasupporters@hotmail.co.uk

The Countdown to Northern Leagues United

It’s nearly here! Saturday 9th July marks the biggest day so far in the Onagawa Supporters campaign, with the staging of the Grassroots International: Northern Leagues United event at Birtley Town FC in Gateshead. It’s an occasion that represents a massive display of support by the grassroots football community in the north-east of England for Cobaltore Onagawa, the small football club in Japan working to aid the recovery of its hometown from the 11th March tsunami.

So what can fans attending Northern Leagues United expect? There will be football, of course – but also a whole host of fun, the grand opening of Birtley Town’s brand new clubhouse, merchandise for sale, a filmmaker, live commentary, a raffle with some genuinely fantastic football prizes and the presentation of the magnificent Onagawa Cup, thanks to our friends at ExecTalk Sports. We’re also pleased and proud to say that representatives of Onagawa Supporters will be there to deliver a message direct from Japan and Cobaltore.

Northern Leagues United has a theme of international solidarity through football and acts as a fundraiser not only for Cobaltore Onagawa, but also for the host club at Birtley. The day features no fewer than three matches that will be contested – fiercely contested, that is – by top class players from across the Northern League, passionate fans of the grassroots game, football writers eager to put their money where their not inconsiderable mouths are and youngsters representing the next generation of local football, not to mention a bona fide former Premiership and international player in former Newcastle United and Republic of Ireland defender John Anderson.

Cobaltore’s proportion of the money raised on 9th July will go via Onagawa Supporters to fund the activities of the three squads of young players that the club are trying to maintain through 2011, despite having lost all of their equipment in the annihilation of Onagawa town by the tsunami. While the Cobaltore first team will play no matches this year as the players concentrate on local recovery work – meaning that the club have no income – staff are pouring their energy into organising the activities of about 100 players in the Cobaltore U12, U15 and U18 squads. The intention is that, rather than leaving their ruined hometown, these youngsters will through football see a future in Onagawa.

It’s this idea – that grassroots football can play a vital part in supporting and sustaining a community – that Northern Leagues United is all about. If you’re able to get to Birtley Town, close to the Angel of the North, the gates open at 11am on Saturday 9th July with a kick-off of the first game at 11.30am. You can express your support by attending the event and by buying raffle tickets and merchandise. You can also make a donation either at Birtley, or simply by clicking the Donate button on the right-hand side of this page (you don’t need a Paypal account to donate via this means!). Thank you very much – and see you at Birtley Town!

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