Football Club in Yambol sponsored by My BG/BG Aid

Football Club Gagarin of the village Krumovo, Yambol in Bulgaria was set up in September 2008.

It started as a direct result of a group of lads that Darren (with the help of Bulgarian friends Dencho and Velichka) coached twice weekly for a year and a half who decided they wanted to progress and use the skills he has been teaching them.

The club started with around 10 boys but by the third week that group had become 15 or so, some other older boys would come and watch, but always only wanted to play the football match at the end of each session.  So Darren had to explain to them  that all were welcome, however, he would like them to join in the training, and then play, so basically anyone who didn't turn up for training and warm up exercises, couldn't play a match at the end as it wasn't really fair on the other guys who turned up for the whole thing.

So the older lads had a few weeks of rebellion against this then slowly but surely realised that Darren was serious and that because they wanted to play they had to join in, so they did.

And they found they enjoyed it.

Darren always starts off with some running round the pitch shouting commands in Bulgarian and English then they go on to do some exercises where they usually are in pairs with a ball, then some stretches and some warm ups, usually team exercises and then the match at the end.

All the kids enjoy it, though the younger ones of the group can sometimes lack the same concentration and like to add some gymnastics into the training too.

The group age from 6 up to 26, the football team is made up of a very young group of players, who here in Bulgaria are allowed to start playing at 14!  In the UK its 16, so can you imagine your son of 14 coming up against lads of 26!  So as the team are so young Darren asked a few of the older lads to come into the team as they have the experience that sadly is lacking in the team at present.

The first friendly match was against Inzovo, and they were shocking!  These lads have suddenly realised oh my god, we are a team now, we are not having a kick about in the street any longer, we really are a team and we have to play by the rules against lads who are experienced.

"It knocked them for six" was an understatement!

They all realised that they had to learn the rules, particularly the offside rule and basically how to play properly, and that they had their work cut out for them, Darren thought, "what have I done?????"

It was quite difficult in the beginning to get some of them to be disciplined, the lad above (Illian) in the flowery shorts was awful, he would laugh at everyone, and generally disrupt the group all the time by making jokes and causing fights.

Eventually Darren thought it was time he was taught a lesson, so told him he was not welcome to join the group any longer, until he decided he wanted to be there.

A few weeks of being excluded from the group did the trick, at first he came and tried to get the other boys to stop training, but they ignored him, so he soon got the message.

Now he is in the football team and only the other day I told him I can't hear him anymore!  He is such a lovely lad too, as they all are.

Dencho and Nedelko

We had been given a load of kit from Exeter City FC before we came here in 2006, and so we handed out kit to all the lads. and soon they were wearing it at the local disco and out and about, so we had a change of heart and gave them all tops from more kit we were given later on from Exeter City, which is bright yellow and all have No.1 on, that soon put a stop to them wearing the kit out and about!

They had no footwear for football, some of them didn't even have footwear for normal wear, so we were given some boots from Ian from UK2BG which helped, also some footballs from Caroline also from UK2BG were donated.

One little lad had trainers on, but when he sat down there were no soles in them!  I could have cried.

But thanks to all the kind donations (Bob and Lesley, Belper Town FC in Derby) they now look the part.

So here they are just a few months on, looking more organised and disciplined as a group in their yellow No 1 tops!

This was the night that we had the programme makers of BTV's "Takuv i Zhivotut" which is being show (repeats at the moment) on Saturdays on BTV at 4pm, and the new series from the 27th Sept.

The lads were so excited to watch themselves on the tv and became local heroes, we had to keep everything very hush hush otherwise the whole village of Krumovo would have come so they could have their 5 minutes of fame too.

Now the group are 40 in number and growing, we have our first girl in the group, she is taller than the boys of her age, and equally as good, and we dont think she will be the last to attend.

The boys were asked if they thought it was good to have a girl in the group and they agreed yes, asked if they wanted her on their team, they all nodded and said ne!

At Christmas we had two parties, the first was one that the boys had paid toward for us, we had been told by Dencho and Velichka that the boys had stolen some money from the school office and every week Darren saw them each paying a little bit back, after several weeks, he thought how much did they steal, and then on the night we were supposed to be helping Dencho and Velichka in the cafe, they surprised us with the party and a touch lamp as a gift.

It was a very moving moment, and a fantastic night and the boys were so well behaved, despite being allowed to have some alcohol.

Then the next week we had already planned a party for them, again another fantastic time, now normally kids can get annoying but this lot just know how to enjoy themselves and we did.

Earlier this year the lads from Krumovo who attended Inzovo school, were entered for the Yambol school 2 day competition beating 7 other schools to win the tournament.

These are some of the little lads that come to the wednesday sessions, and are also the future of this club.  Our long term strategy is to fix the gym floor which is in Krumovo school and now is not in use at all as the parquet floor has popped in places causing it to be dangerous.  Twiggy from this forum has said he will be bringing over some flooring from Crystal Palace sports ground, so we are hoping to raise enough funds to be able to repair the rest of the building, so that will be the roof repaired, new plasterboard and UVPC and electricity.

We have asked the mayor of Tundzha for money/help with this project and he has agreed to it (even on the new series of Takuv i Zhivotut) but so far we have heard nothing.

The gym would not only serve as a 5 a side gym, but we plan to set up the floor makings for badminton, volleyball etc and also involve the whole community with the renovation and running of it.  We think it could be used for a whole load of community things such as bingo, jumble sales, and fayres, plus of course the kids of the school can use it again!

If you think you can help either by offering your services or money please get in touch.

The school gym in Krumovo, not been renovated for 68 years and sadly too dangerous to use for this winter's training.

The 2nd thing we would like to achieve is to get a club house, we are thinking of one of those wooden cabins, so the teams will have some where they can change and go to the toilet as at present they do it in the bushes, yes toilet as well!  In the winter it is going to be dire!

The pitch is being repaired as we speak and at present is like this, it has had to be widened and the goal posts moved, luckily we have 4 more away games before they play on here.

(those bushes are where they go to the loo)

Picking the team

When Darren took on the managers job for FC Gagarin he asked about finances and was told all would be taken care of by the league, so that was great, but as soon as the registration was paid in, he was told about the referee and linesmen fee of 150 leva per home match and the doctor fee of 50 leva per match and these people have to be at the match, there are also police and a league official.

Of course we were gobsmacked about these costs Krumovo is a 90% Roma village, the boys do not have a lot of expendable income, only a few of them work infact, and the rest of the boys are still at school, all of a sudden there was a real danger that this club was going to have to fold before it even kicked a ball.

Team piccie

These lads now come to training sessions to keep fit and learn new skills, some of them have given up smoking and drinking and the mayor says they do not take drugs, though they still occasionally cause trouble, but they have something to look forward to, they have responsibilty of looking after their own kits (but still use the old excuse my mums washing it!) they have something they can be proud of.

Thank you My Bulgaria and others who have supported us so far, (Bre for translating, Jeannette and Keith and Ann T)

Darren's Auntie Pat sent us over 41 pairs of football boots yesterday and believe it or not, there are still not enough!!  We need larger sizes please.  They were all purchased from car boot sales.

OKay we need your support for their 2nd match of the season, they cannot get enough of their supporters to come to the away matches due to petrol costs, so we need you to help support them if you can either by coming to watch and shouting them on or by coming to watch, shouting them on and giving some lads a lift!

The next match is tomorrow, (friday 19th) versus Bolyarovo (at Bolyarovo) kick off is 5.30 pm, please try to be there.

And the next match is a local derby, versus General Inzovo (the team Darren played for and managed last season but quit to run the Krumovo Gagarin lads) this is Monday 22nd at 5pm.

Okay thats it for the first page of the blog, more to come as and when it happens.

Thanks and hope to see you there!!

Nikki and Darren Weeks

There are a few ways you can support the team, either by bringing us boots, footballs, shinpads and kit etc with you on your visits, donating money to BG Aid, into a jar in the office at Bulgarian Real Estate Ltd in Yambol or directly to us, buying some of Darren's photograhpy of Bulgaria as for every picture sold we will donate the money less our printing costs.

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