Highly skilled CWU team win prestigious Birmingham football trophy

Postal

As well as doing a great job for members at Birmingham Mail Centre, Waseem Ali and fellow reps proved their skills at five-a-side last weekend, when they saw off stiff challenges from The Late Shift, and The Battle Hardened Legends to win the inaugural BMC Cup…

“Although our team did win the tournament, it wasn’t about winning – it was all about raising money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital,” said mail centre rep and footballing maestro Waseem, when CWU News chatted to him yesterday.

“Altogether, over £1,000 was raised, with all the players from every team donating a minimum £20 and then more from friends, colleagues and family members,” Waseem explained.

“It was a lot of fun and all in a very good cause.”

With restrictions easing and the many football enthusiasts among the workforce keen to play again, CWU rep Rafiq Ali, Waseem and some of their other colleagues came up with the idea of the tournament to support a worthy local cause and enjoy some friendly sport at the same time.

“Rafiq and one of the managers, Michael Gooden, did the main organising at work for all of this, and I asked my Birmingham & District Amal Branch secretary Steve Reid if the branch could help and they agreed to hire the venue – Goals in Perry Barr – and they paid for the trophies.

“Then we put out a notice at work,” he says.

The response was immediate and eight different teams formed up for the big day – each individual player making the requested donation and raising more from others.

Team names were quite interesting as well, Night Walkers and Ferriers, as well as the aforementioned Battle Hardened Legends brought the mail centre’s great sense of humour to the occasion, although Waseem told us he thought the Chicken Tikka Masalla Fives had taken the silliness a bit too far.

“They got knocked out early – and deservedly so with a daft name like that!” he joked.

Two groups of four played for the respective top two spots and the semis saw Waseem’s CWU side prevail over the Legends (a no-nonsense team of drivers), while Night Ferriers were knocked out by The Late Shift.

“We won the final 6-3 and it was a great match,” reports Waseem, adding: “People are saying they all want to do this again – maybe we could even challenge some other branches?

“A big thank you to Rafiq and Michael in particular and to all the players and to everyone at Birmingham MC and to our branch as well – most of all, thanks for donating to help the children’s hospital.”