Without financial resources to participate in the world championship, the Brazilian women’s flag football team launched a campaign for fans and supporters to “adopt” players or even the team’s staff in order to guarantee the team’s 5th participation in the event.
The 2020 edition (which takes place in December this year because it was postponed last year due to the pandemic) will be held in Israel, where 22 countries (a record!) will compete in the men’s and women’s categories. The Brazilian men’s team will also participate in the tournament, with athletes paying for their travel.
O flag football is a sport in which you play with your hands, derived from American football. Learn more about the sport here.
The total estimated cost for the participation of the women’s team in the World Cup is R$ 230 thousand (the amount may vary due to the rise or fall of the dollar). So far, with other sources such as sponsorship, the girls have only R$30,000. The amount collected individually by the athletes has not yet been accounted for.
“We have to pay approximately R$ 46 thousand to organize the tournament now in November and we have to buy a ticket in the next three weeks. Once there, we will have several costs in person, such as covid tests”, explains the athlete from the national team Ester Alencar.
According to her, the campaign came to cover the high costs of taking a full delegation to a world cup on the other side of the world.
With the pandemic really being on the other side of the world, the costs are higher than ever
Ester Alencar
She says that, in order to try to cover the costs of athletes and coaching staff, fundraising strategies were devised. “So we chose to put this action on the air to bring something more personal to those who were contributing; it’s not just like participating in a cow, but you choose one of us and directly contribute to the realization of this dream”, he explains.
According to Ester, since it was launched, the campaign has had good results. “We have managed to bring the attention of several people, both to the site and to the athletes’ personal pix. I believe that the proposal’s personality helped”, she says.
For those who don’t know the athletes of the national team yet, you also have the option of adopting all of them. “Another way is to adopt a technical commission and staff. That way people can still help, but they don’t necessarily need to make that choice,” he says.
intentions
Sixth in the world rankings, the women’s team is full of hopes of getting its best participation in the tournament (it was 6th in 2016 and 2018).
I believe this group is very capable. This will be Brazil’s 5th participation in World Cups, and while we have many athletes who are in their first call, our technical committee is experienced both in the flag national football, and international
Ester Alencar
Brazilian team is 6th in the world ranking for the sport
Image: Flag Football Brazil
Ester acts as the national team’s receiver/slinger and says that Brazil has been improving its level every year and the team arrives strong to dispute in Israel.
According to her, the pandemic hampered a little preparation on the field — which has been supplied with current training. “But we took the opportunity to develop everything around the knowledge of the game at individual technical and tactical levels and also video analysis. We arrived at the ‘training camp’ after a year and a half without training, but very well aligned and training well” , reveals.
The Brazilian team is made up of athletes who work in different areas and unite out of love for the sport. Ester, for example, has a degree and works in physical education.
“I am the developer of the flag program for children in the federation of Paraná, which will start this month. I wrote the teaching project and I will be the teacher”, she says, proudly. “But we have players in the group who act as administrators, environmental managers, firefighters, university students. There’s a little of everything,” she adds.
Did you like the idea and want to adopt an athlete? Click here and choose who and how you want to help.
