Youth

Truce Tournament teaches Academy stars important lessons

25 Dec 2023

Under-12s from eight English clubs travel to Ypres, Belgium, to learn about sacrifices made in war and play European counterparts

Every year the Premier League Truce Tournament offers Academy Under-12 players the opportunity to learn. Not just learn about tournament football, from the national qualifying tournament to the finals playing against some of their top European counterparts in Ypres, Belgium. But learn off the pitch as well, about the horrors of war and other important issues.

Each Academy participating in the national tournament get their boys to do educational projects which form part of the qualifying. This year’s challenge revolved around the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush boat that brought the first generation of people from the Caribbean, who have become such an integral part of British life.

Youngsters from 26 clubs learnt about Walter Tull, a former professional footballer and the first black officer in the British Army. They also explored the contributions of the Windrush generation within their local communities, through various activities such as poetry writing and charity fundraising, players engaged in meaningful projects.

PremierLeague_TruceTournament-07086 — West Brom's Under-12s visit the war graves near Ypres

The five academies who qualified for the tournament at armed forces bases around the country - Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers – were joined by three more whose projects earned them a place at the finals in Belgium: Brighton & Hove Albion, Norwich City and Sheffield United.

Premier League Truce Tournament 2023 — The English players saw at the war cemetery the toll that the First World War had

There they joined Eintracht Frankfurt, Club Brugge, Genk, and Lyon, representing the other nations who fought in the fields around Ypres during the First World War.

While at Ypres, the English clubs’ players Academy engaged in educational activities, including a visit to the Christmas Truce memorial at Mesen, participating in the ceremony at the Menin Gate that commemorates the war dead, and an immersive experience of the trench conditions suffered by soldiers during the Great War.

PremierLeague_TruceTournament-7407172 — Players from the different Academies mingled ahead of the tournament

At the tournament, after an all-English set of semi-finals, the final was contested between Sheffield United and Chelsea.

Sheff Utd had qualified for the finals thanks to their work with the Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club, which included a sponsored event to raise funds for a minibus.

The Blues, who won the final by a single goal, had qualified on the pitch but had undertaken a special project that included meeting first-team players Raheem Sterling, Reece James and Levi Colwill to learn more about Caribbean heritage and recording a Caribbean-inspired song.