Faith and Football Songs of Praise


Faith and Football

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In a couple of weeks, the eyes of the world will be focused here,

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in Brazil, for the 2014 World Cup.

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OK, I'm not really in Brazil.

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Our Songs Of Praise budget didn't quite stretch that far,

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but I am here at Wembley Stadium, and I've got plenty

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of football for you and a group of rather enthusiastic Brazilians.

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Today, what it's like to fulfil a boyhood dream

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and play for your country in the World Cup.

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The fans who are off to Brazil to do more than just watch

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a few games of footie.

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Plus how England's favourite sport went international,

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a Brazilian Mass, and fantastic hymns from around the UK.

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CHEERING

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So what do Tottenham Hotspur, Leeds United

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and Manchester United all have in common?

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Apart from the fact they're all football teams -

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I don't support any of them, I'm an Arsenal man -

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the answer is their supporters have all used our first hymn as a chant.

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Now legend has it that its writer, Julia Ward Howe,

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didn't sit down to write a hymn.

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She simply awoke one morning with these inspiring words in her head

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and rushed to find a pen to put them down on paper.

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Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory is by no means the only hymn

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that's used as a chant by football supporters on the terraces.

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When The Saints Go Marching In

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and He's Got The Whole World In His Hands are often sung.

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Well, in 1997, Chelsea beat Middlesbrough here,

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and the defeated team supporters sang We Shall Overcome,

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a famous protest song from the American Civil Rights Movement,

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which actually started out though as a gospel song.

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And of course, there's Abide With Me.

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It's been heard here at Wembley a few times.

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It's been sung before kick-off at the FA Cup Final ever since 1927,

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when Cardiff beat Arsenal.

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It pains me to tell you that.

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In just over two weeks, the World Cup kicks off in Brazil.

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And one group of people who'll be watching with special interest

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are London's Brazilian community,

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many of whom worship here, at St Anne's Church in Whitechapel.

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I've been in this church

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since 2012 and I lead the Mass for the Brazilian community.

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There are many Brazilians here and most of them are Catholic.

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The Mass is the same.

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The only thing different is Brazilians participate more -

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they sing and they move.

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'The celebration is more lively.'

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THEY SING

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I've been here for six months only.

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In the first weeks I was here, I went to English churches

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and everything, so it was a bit hard because I couldn't speak English

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very well so when I came here, it was much easier to communicate.

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SHE SINGS

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The relationship with God is better

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when you pray in your own language

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and I do love to follow the English Mass as well

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but I prefer to come to the Portuguese one, it's better for me.

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I'm not a football fan, but when the World Cup becomes a craze,

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all the games, I like to know everything.

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I like to read every day about what's going on in the World Cup.

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I didn't pray for Brazil to win the World Cup, but I prayed for

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change in Brazil. I prayed for the change in justice for the poor.

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HE PRAYS

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While some of London's Brazilian community are praying in church,

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others are praying in the dressing room.

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Father, thank you...

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Fire United Christian football team is

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part of the Middlesex County Football League.

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They focus on more than just scoring goals.

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We always pray, we always read the Bible,

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speak to the players.

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We started a team so that we can honour the name of God.

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It's not just about winning,

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but it's also about bringing the players together.

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Most of the team are Christians, but we also have one or two

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players who are Muslims, but they don't have a problem.

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They all come, we all read the Bible together, you know.

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No religion can stop this project.

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As a Muslim, I see no problem playing with a Christian team

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because the aim of all what we are doing is being victorious

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and play football, have fun together, you know,

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share the same thing which is football.

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When we are in a circle, they are praying the Lord's Prayer

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while I'm praying in my own way of praying so I think it is acceptable.

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Amen.

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Most of the players are Brazilians.

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Most of the time, we're here speaking in Portuguese,

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praying in Portuguese.

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I try to translate most of the time because we have some players

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who are from Columbia that may not understand Portuguese,

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but they speak English.

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We try to keep everything right, we try not to swear

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and things like this in the matches because it's very hard sometimes.

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We love football. Since a little kid, I started playing football.

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We play football on the roads, on the streets, we play football...

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There is football pitches everywhere, parks,

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it's like it's in our blood.

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If it gets to the World Cup Final, England versus Brazil, I would

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support Brazil, but I think it would be a tough match.

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Footballer Marvin Andrews has played for Glasgow Rangers,

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Queen of the South and Hamilton,

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but he grew up a long way from Scotland,

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on the tropical island of Trinidad,

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where he dreamt of one day representing his country in the World Cup.

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When I was younger, watching Italian football on telly,

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looking at the crowds, the big crowds cheering the players on.

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So, I always dreamed one day that I would love to play in a stadium

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full of people shouting your name and cheering for you and stuff like that.

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So, what's it like when you walk out into a stadium like this?

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You've played in some massive stadiums in your career.

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-It gives me goosebumps at the back of my neck.

-Really?

-Yeah.

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What would you say is the greatest moment of your footballing career?

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Oh, my greatest moment for me would be definitely helping Trinidad

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and Tobago qualify for the first ever World Cup.

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It was in 1989, Trinidad and Tobago

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missed out just by one point against America at home.

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Yeah, I remember.

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Then I said to myself that I want to be part of the team that will

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help my country qualify for their first ever World Cup. 16 years

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-later, it came to pass in 2006 in Germany.

-How did you feel?

-Amazing.

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-Amazing feeling. I was actually crying.

-Really?!

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And I don't really cry.

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I had a load of friends who always told me, "Marvin,

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"Trinidad and Tobago never qualify for the World Cup, never qualify."

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I tell them, "Guys, I'm not going to stick for that.

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"I'm going to keep praying, keep training hard and one day,

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-"that dream will come to pass."

-So, which came first for you?

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-Was it the faith or football?

-I always had a faith.

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My grandmother taught me from a very young age to always believe in God.

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She taught me to pray first thing in the morning

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and last thing at night before I go to bed.

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Would you say God has been a support for you throughout your career?

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I wouldn't say actually a support.

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I think he's been the leader of my life

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if you want to put it that way, because I believe that he has

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orchestrated in me coming to Britain, coming to Scotland.

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He's helped you through it all.

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He has helped me through all my injuries that I've faced.

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Obviously I think the most noted one is the ACL, anterior cruciate ligament,

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where I damaged my left knee against Dundee playing for Rangers.

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It was a career-threatening injury.

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I came down to two specialists down in England here.

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They look at my knee and both of them give the same diagnosis that

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I have to go under the knife.

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I need to take a surgery.

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Then I went home and I prayed.

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I said, "Lord, what do you want me to do here?

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"Do you want me to pray or do you want me to go under the knife?"

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God said to me, "Marv, believe me." For a professional footballer playing

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for Glasgow Rangers coming out

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and saying, "God will heal my knee," is very strange for many people.

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Alex McLeish, the manager at that time, told me that, "Marv, yes,

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"I respect your belief, but if God will really heal you,

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"I want to see it outside on the pitch."

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We were five points behind Celtic, four games to go

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before the end of the season, fans are thinking the League is over.

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I came up and said in an interview, "The League is not over,

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"keep believing and we can still win the League."

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Alex McLeish has a dilemma, to play Marv or not to play him

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because technical staff was saying, "Marv is going to collapse," but for

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some reason, God touched his heart and he put me in the starting 11.

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Last game of the season, we're two points behind Celtic.

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Miraculously, my knee held up, Celtic lost the game, we won our game

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and we won the Championship.

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So it was a great day.

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Now then, the game of football was developed HERE in the UK

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in the 19th century.

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But it wasn't long before it spread abroad,

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and one of the first teams to play an international,

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and even reach Brazil, was based here, in West London.

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Now, the club where that team was based still exists.

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There's still plenty of sport being played here,

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only they don't play with a ball like this.

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Oh, no. They play with a ball like this.

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Many clergymen in the Victorian era had gone to public school

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and at school, they'd been taught to be Christian gentlemen.

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Now, that involved primarily the acquisition of moral values

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such as standing for truth, honesty,

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righteousness in the face of all sorts of opposition.

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Now, it was believed that these

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qualities of character could be instilled via sport.

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Now, when many of these young men became clergymen,

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they felt that football was a marvellous way of instilling

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Christian values into the young men

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in the parishes in which they were working.

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And they formed football clubs.

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A quarter of all football clubs formed in England

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in the latter part of the Victorian era were started by churches,

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and some of these became very famous.

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12 clubs that have played in the Premier League are of church origin.

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So, we have for example, Manchester City, Everton, Southampton

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and Tottenham Hotspur.

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There were once as many forms of football as there are villages

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in England and each village played according to its own rule.

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In 1863, representatives from several different football

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clubs met in London and one set of rules was agreed upon.

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That was the beginning of association football.

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Remarkably, international football started only ten years after

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the fledgling game was born.

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It was a match between Scotland and England in Partick near Glasgow

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and it was a nil-nil draw.

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But over the next few matches,

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Scotland proved to be the stronger side,

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so the best players from various English clubs gathered together,

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forming a new team to challenge the Scottish supremacy -

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the Corinthians.

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Initially, the Corinthians played their matches away, but from 1895

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until 1921, they were based here at the Queen's Tennis Club.

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One of the Corinthians, Charles Miller,

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was born in Brazil where his father was an engineer.

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When he went back to Brazil in 1894, he famously took

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in his suitcase two footballs, the FA rulebook and some football boots.

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He introduced football to the Sao Paulo Athletic Club

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and then he formed the first football league in Brazil.

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In 1910, he invited the Corinthians over to Brazil on a tour

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and the Brazilians were so impressed by the sportsmanship,

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the fair play, the Christian values and the quality of football that

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these Corinthians were playing that they named a club in their honour -

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Corinthians.

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And that club is one of the most famous in Brazil today, and actually

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won the World Club Championship against Chelsea in 2012.

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For many fans, it's about the game and winning is everything, but

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one man wants to do more than just chant for his team on the terraces.

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We started an organisation seven years ago that's all about

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mobilising football fans to community action,

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whether it's locally or World Cup trips or that kind of thing.

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To do what? How do they get involved?

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We're good at two things, really. We're good at football schools...

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and we're good at building stuff.

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So, we get fans to come on World Cup Legacy tours

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and they either build stuff or they kick a ball with kids.

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It's that simple, basically.

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Our first big project was South Africa, for the World Cup

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out there, which was a wonderful place to start.

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So, we were in a little valley called the Valley of a Thousand Hills,

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and we went three or four times and ended up building an orphanage

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and a school and some changing rooms and just getting involved

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during the World Cup. Took 150 guys out there and just went for it.

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Eight days hard work, four days off when there's a match in the city.

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So, the idea is that they go and watch the football

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-and then go and build houses.

-It's a proper World Cup tour.

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We work hard on the days between matches in the city,

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and we have a proper day off with all the passing fans coming through.

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Pub on the night watching the games on the telly. It's fantastic.

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So, we've got the World Cup in Brazil, England

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are going which is more than Wales are, but I'm not bitter.

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-Don't hold your breath.

-No, no, no, not this time.

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And what sort of work will you be doing there though?

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We've been heading out there for about three years,

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trying to find the right place to work.

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We've established a base in the host cities

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so we're building a football centre

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and refurbishing some changing rooms and doing about 12 soccer schools.

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Mainly trying to do an anti-drug education message loosely through the football work.

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One of the fans going out to Brazil is

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the chaplain of Southampton Football Club, Andy Bowerman.

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He and his friends are raising money for the Lionsraw project with

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a sponsored cycle ride,

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taking in all of England's Premier League stadiums.

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They're hoping their efforts will raise £20,000.

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So I suppose you've got to get used to spending quite a long

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-time on these bikes.

-Yeah, 1,000 miles in 11 days.

-Really?

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-21 different stadiums.

-Right.

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And none of us are very experienced at cycling, so we've been

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doing a lot of training over the last eight or nine months.

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It's a challenge but I think we're all looking forward to it.

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And you end up in Southampton,

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probably on a day very much like today.

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-Soaking wet.

-Yeah.

-Oh, horrendous.

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So, what are you raising money for?

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-Money for a building project in Curitiba in Brazil.

-Right.

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It's to build an education centre

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and a sports facility for children,

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and then a number of us are involved in building

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the project during the World Cup, so it should be an amazing experience.

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And how? I'm really jealous.

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Over 300 football fans will be joining Andy

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and his fellow cyclists in going to Brazil with Lionsraw.

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It's open for anyone.

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This is not a Christian organisation, not a Christian project.

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Most of the people involved now wouldn't consider themselves

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Christians but we hope that Christian

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values are kind of oozing out of the organisation, because it's about

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being kind to people and trying to make a difference for people.

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Lord, help us to play with fairness.

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To win with humility,

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to lose with grace.

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To accept life's challenges

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and travel on life's journeys

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with hope in our hearts.

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Amen.

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Our final hymn today is a favourite on the football terraces.

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It's sung with various different lyrics.

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"You're not singing any more, we can see you sneaking out"

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and "I will never be a blue."

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But I'm a good Welshman,

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so we're going to stick with the uplifting words written by a great,

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if not the greatest, Welsh hymn writer. William Williams Pantycelyn.

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Next week, Pam introduces hymns from congregations with special

0:33:110:33:15

reasons to remember the 70th anniversary of D-day.

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Visiting Hampshire's naval and garrison towns,

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she meets a veteran who fought on the beaches,

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hears how an army chaplain was one of the heroes of D-day

0:33:240:33:26

and discovers how an epic piece of art is a memorial to the action

0:33:260:33:31

which did so much to bring about the end of World War II in Europe.

0:33:310:33:35

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