It's been a difficult year, you can't dress up 2020 any other way. But from a purely footballing perspective, we've achieved a lot at FC7, in extremely challenging circumstances. We thought it a good idea to put the year down on paper, to remind us all how far we have come.
Here's our End of Year review. Enjoy!
Brief re-cap of 2019
2020 started out fairly slowly, It's only correct to have a brief recap of the previous year. 2019 was the beginning of our journey. Spurred on through a collective tragedy at work, we had delivered a Charity Footy Tournament in memory of Luca, the inspiration behind FC7. We had raised over £2500 and had promised to honour his memory by finally making good on our promises, and getting regular games of footy up and running. Back in 2019 it was actually touch and go, we very nearly lost the impetus we had created from the buzz of the tournament, but Man Baby had managed to arrange a game against John Lewis and that was the game that made it all happen. A tight victory, had given the gang a taste of the Wednesday/Thursday night lights.
Not long after their maiden game, Jumbo set about diligently trying to think of ways we could setup a weekly game. In his Poirot-esque investigations, he came across a website called "Footy Addicts". The rest is history, as they say.
www.FootyAddicts.com
Footy addicts had given us the tools to take out all the cumbersome legwork out of organising a match, and Jumbo had put in place the framework for something very special. Soon enough the team were playing fairly regularly in 2019. Unfortunately Xmas and December got in the way and attendance petered out a little.
With only 1 game in December 2019, this was followed up by an empty January and the next game came along on the 11th February. We managed to slip in 1 more game on the 17th March, less than a week later, the then alien notion of a national lockdown was imposed, Covid-19 had arrived, with many deaths in it's wake. Grassroots football was banned until further notice. Life was paused. Life had changed.
Food for thought
It's easy to say that the lockdown got in the way, well it did. But we had got a little complacent and less on it, with regards to football, people were slipping back into their couch potatoes ways and Jumbo's tireless attempts to get a game going were falling on deaf ears. 2 games coming up just short of 3 months wasn't good enough, we knew that, and strangely, the national lockdown gave us some time to re-visit our ideas, use tech to our advantage and follow through on an idea that people could get invested in. We always wanted to be more than just a weekly kickabout, but how?
FOOTBALL CLUB SE7EN
1st May 2021 (May Day) - Football Club Se7en was born. It may seem silly now, but the idea was to create a football club, in those early days, that's all it was, but everyone needs to start somewhere. We wanted more, we wanted that idea to be a banner, people could rally around, a totem, we could be proud of, something we were all part of, more than a club, as ur slogan states.
I had rebounded a few ideas off Jumbo, strangely passive, like an Otter slumbering out of hibernation, he liked what he was hearing and was onboard. For now, we just had to flesh out our ideas, see if it was just lockdown madness or whether there was any substance to them.
The Evolution of the FC7 crest, we've come a long way.....artistically ha!
What's in a name?
It's funny looking back, at some of our ideas ha. We were new to this, weren't the most artistic, and well, some of our early efforts were laughable. I think initially we called ourselves FC FITFLOP, nothing to see here people. Jumbo pointed out though, that a few of our players wouldn't be working at the company, that WE might not be working at the company one day, let's start from scratch, create something new and by ourselves. So FCSE7EN was born. How did we get to FC7 though? A-ha. Well by chance really, we came up with a few geographical ideas, but realistically we came from different parts of London, and some even further afield. We started bouncing around the idea of numbers, as they were quite generic, non-geographical and ultimately football is all about them. We needed something dynamic that would last the test of time, call it child-like enthusiasm, but we wanted to create a brand.
At first, I remember sending Jumbo some graphics along the lines of FC FIVES, FIVEZ, SIXFC etc, but the number 7, seemed to appeal to me. A lucky number in many cultures, our ultimate goal was to have a 7-a-side team trotting out weekly in the Putney Powerplay League. So Seven just dovetailed nicely...looking for inspiration of graphics to represent our ideas, we stumbled along 3 great films, that we were all massive fans of. The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent 7 and Se7en. The club was meant to not only be a footy collective but a collusion of shared hobbies, ideas fashion, thinking, an art collective. We all loved gaming, retro movies, anime, eastern culture and it just so happened that the number 7 fitted into to all this. You may notice that the way we spell FC Se7en comes directly from the movie "se7en", which we though looked quite neat...siiick man as Jumbo's catchphrase has become.
To put it in perspective, the name BENTEKE FRIED CHICKEN came up (my idea), we seriously thought of a comedic footy themed name, along the lines of "Murder on Zidanes Floor", "Unreal Madrid" etc, but it just didn't sit well with our core thinking. It seemed to degrade the idea of what we were trying to achieve.
We Wear the Black
We set about thinking of some colours too, that best represented FC7. Black and White seemed the obvious first choices, as they were the colours of Luca's favourite teams, Juventus & Fulham. Are black and white colours, though? We also wanted to put in some actual warmth into our team logo too, and RED was just the natural choice. Lucky in eastern culture, most of the founding ballers supported teams in RED, and it was a nice nod to our company too, where it ultimately started. The BLACK, RED and WHITE. Decided.
Sounds so simple now but ask Jumbo, how many ideas we had at the beginning. I think I had some fascination with hoops (I still don't know where this came from). Black & white, Black & red, Black & yellow were all consigned to the bin. We then thought of GREEN, yep, a far cry from what we settled on.
Nothing says cool, like ALL-BLACK. Just tell Darth Vader he looks like a tool and see where that get's you, cough cough. It's a simple look, quite uncommon in the footballing kit world, and is slick as .&*%*. Exactly what we were looking for, exactly what represented us in kit terms.
We did a bit of research to see if we could find anywhere that could source us a kit, dude, there's a lot of suppliers out there, you know. I decided on UNISPORT, not only are they are great site to buy all things football from, but they, like FC7, are more than just an online shop who take your money. They have great YouTube videos, reviewing their products, skill tutorials and just comedy sketches. They seemed the perfect match for us. Several messages between us and them, and within 2 weeks...our first kit was made and ready for dispatch! Exciting times.
The Legend of "Said" - the DPD guy
It was actually hilarious the day I got the DPD tracking details. Myself and Jumbo, were like kids on the eve of Christmas. Cue "Said", our "friendly dpd delivery driver". Unwittingly the star of the day and a crucial piece of the FC7 jigsaw. Little does he know the super star he became. As we followed him on the live DPD site, he got agonisingly close to my house before seemingly forgetting us and edging away from my postcode minute by minute, metre by metre. Finally, on what was a sweltering day, Said, turned up, drenched in sweat, I felt somewhat sorry for him, a bit portly bless him, he now give me my package, proud smile on his face, as he had dutifully fulfilled his goal in life! I run upstairs and tore off the wrapping.
It was perfect...our very own uniform. Our first kit, our own logo, a professional looking sponsor and a name and number on the back. Many will say it's just a piece of cloth. But it was more than that. It was a realisation of some hard work and dreams albeit small ones, being turned into reality. While others were beginning to grate on us at work, with their negative attitudes, we were determined not to let Covid-19 beat us. We were determined not to get downbeat. Life was short, we wanted to show that you could still live it, just differently. We all had so much time on our hands now with lockdown, but least we actually did something with that time. We created a story, a soundtrack to the summer of 2020.
Lockdown Blues
Lockdown was beginning to drag on, we had witness some of our ideas come to fruition, but none of it would of mattered, if we couldn't get a game setup. All kitted up, me and Jumbo might not have anyone to play with, that would of been embarrassing. Jumbo knew he could rely on the regulars from last year. Step forward, Frodo, Billy Whizz, Tableau Tey........that was the 1st team sorted. WE had 5 at least! But we weren't gonna stop there, we went on a recruitment drive. Lockdown was a strange time, you had 2 types of people, the ones that talked and the ones that walked, it taught us a lot about people in general, and how strong people were mentally. We soon found a lot of takers who seemed to be invested in the idea of FC7, the banner, the totem was taking effect.
Football is ON! Rejoice!
4 months had passed and lockdown was apprehensively lifted by BoJo and his team. The nation rejoiced, little did we know, this was just the beginning. But people had been isolated and punished through no fault of their own. 1000s had died nationally, hundreds of 1000s in the world. While America was in flames, Donald Trump played his fiddle. But for now, we had to embrace the little things. We were BACK!
First game back after national lockdown was lifted was on the 9th September at Westway Sports Centre.
Typical, it just happened to fall on my dad's 80th birthday. I couldn't make it. Gutted, but some things are more important, i guess. I knew I could leave my other family to it, they'd do me proud in our debut game.
And proud they made me. Okay, we got beat heavily 9-2 (this will be a recurring theme), but this game wasn't about the result. It was a watershed moment, looking back, we've all had watershed moments, on a personal and team level. It still amazes me now, how much we have accomplished. This was a celebration that we even got this far. Me and Jumbo have had some intense arguments about FC7, but it's because we are both passionate people and both of us were now just happy to see the fruit of our labours.
What we had failed to do perhaps the year previously, was really knuckle down and be on everyone to attend each week. The problem if you miss 1 week, is that it's harder to then rally the troops remotely the following week, gaps begin to form, then other commitments weasel their way into everyone's week schedule. Frodo and Jumbo had a WhatsApp group and they started to integrate some tech into it. We created a landing page on the web (https://www.flow.page/fc7), where all the info as a minimum that a player would need, was there. Match signup links from FootyAddicts, a How-To pdf on how to actually create FootyAddicts account and sign up to a game and links to our newly created BLOG (here) and Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/fcse7en/).
The landing page, known now as the "FC7 Clubhouse - https://www.flow.page/fc7", was pretty good. Things were a little messy and complicated on the WhatsApp group, FootyAddict Match links were quite big, so it confused a lot of people. Initially, we were probably a bit too nice too. The First Team, which has no reflection on teams or ability, were just the founding members. We would umm and arrr for days trying to pick a time, day, venue for footy. We gave people too many choices, and as a result we weren't decisive enough.
But we were still scheduling a game a week, which was 1 of our key goals at the end of the day. Baby steps!
Over time, we just had a 5 min chat with the players after the game, and we became pretty good at settling on a time date venue etc. Taking some choices out of the hand of the players, no one really wants to have huge discussions, they just want to play footy after all. We try to be fair, spread the games around London, so its easier for people to get to. It's been great interestingly though, as because everyone is working from home, we don't have to take the easier option of playing at Putney straight from the office, so we've managed to test out a few new places.
I debuted at my first game on the 17th September, Thursday, a week before my birthday. It was a great moment. We all wore our FC7 home kits......and went for some beers to celebrate afterwards despite a 15-10 defeat. Socially distanced and within the government guidance of course.
Storm clouds gather...
It was a great day.....but it would be re-miss of me not to note that we all saw some of the warning signs that night of what was about to be unleashed on us. Celebrate, sure, but the pandemic was far from over. And there were a lot of idiots that night. Restricted from pubs & alcohol for just 4 months, people gorged themselves on drinks, didn't socially distance and alarm bells were ringing, for the first team anyways, no one else seemed to care.
2020 Rant !!!
Outdoor organised sports was exempt from any government rules. We were all a bit wary at first, and it's understandable that some people refrain from football, the 1st team initially trialled out games in this era pandemic era, to be sure things were safe and staff at venues were being responsible. I, of, all people know the risks involved, more so than most when you think about it, but you have to react to the science that is in front of you. The transmissions in outdoor settings have been incredibly low, the positive tests from grassroots football has been almost non-existent. In stark contract with schools, restaurants and pubs. We won't get too political here, there will be a reckoning one day, once we are through the pandemic and people need to answer questions. Not just the politicians but all of us. In times like these, true personality comes out, if anything, it separates the weak from the strong. The Weak, will be selfish, because it's easier to do. The strong will be selfless, it's harder to do. I have family that broke lockdown rules, to celebrate Xmas together. A cousin who thinks Covid-19 is a hoax and won't vaccinate. I can't waste my time on changing their minds, they are weak people. If they can't see how selfish they are being on Christmas Day while the majority of us are sacrificing, if the conspiracy theorists want to dis-respect our medical staff and the victims, of Covid19, then so be it. These people will never change. But sure, they will stand outside and clap the NHS, hypocrites that they are. Weak!
Worzel Gameage
The games were coming thick and fast. We played 8 in a row, yep 8......that's like 2 months of footy. The results were probably more downers than uppers, but as we mentioned before, it was more the taking part and actually having games every week to play which was the ultimate upper!
We started to see some new players too. Another vision statement we made during that balmy lockdown summer was increasing our numbers, not just in the group but people who we could count on to be regular footballers....week in week out.
Motley Crew
Ash (Engleberto), our resident Yank, is a basketballer, but with not many b-ballers at work and gyms and indoor sport banned due to Covid, he thought he would sign up primarily for fitness. He's never played football before, so we see his participation as a massive boon for FC7 and our ethos. Taking that into account and he's probably the most improved among us, he's enjoying it and has become a regular.
SeanDoubleA, another surprise, he had left the company a while back, but his number had been in the WhatsApp group. Out of no where, he signed up, and played a few games with us. Top player, we could do with his skill level in our team. He was also present for our "Massacre of Westway" 2 game series (if you haven't been following us, well why? But if you had you will know about this mauling we received, read the match reports for the games against "Latimer Road Rovers" and "Benteke Fried Chicken" For more info on that unfortunate 2 weeks. ShaunDoubleU put in an appearance in Shoreditch but the real heroes were Finance, Jan, Jon and Phillip P, all stepping up to the plate...finally. These guys could be regulars. We also welcomed Mo, our new starter in I.T. and of course myself. How could I forget. I had been waiting over a year for this, my personal journey perhaps complex with maybe more peaks and troughs than others, but it's all of us who make FC7 what it currently is and let me once again convey a huge thanks to everyone who took part and is involved behind the scenes with admin and less glamourous tasks. Nod to Jumbo & Frodbot here.
2nd Lockdown
After we got through those 2 months, infection rates had rapidly risen, deaths were next, the government were right to put the country into another national lockdown, for all of November, a circuit breaker.
But the lockdown worked, and soon after at the beginning of December we were given the green light for the return (again) on 4th December of grassroots football, and we managed to get 3 games in before news broke of a new Covid-19 variant that was spreading quicker than the previous strain. The deaths, again, would follow.. Despite news of vaccines being rolled out, Coronavirus had a sting in the tail, and a 3rd wave was hitting us. Christmas was cancelled, though a few selfish covidiots in my family failed to understand this. WEAK!
Lockdown was happening at a national level, in all but name, Sadly we will end 2020 stuck in our houses, football once again banned. We achieved a lot in 2020, but we all want this pandemic to be over. There is a bigger picture here, so much death, on a global level. Here's hoping 2021 ushers in a new period. Where maybe some things don't just go back to normal, maybe we're kinder to each other, more appreciative of what we have, not what we haven't.
The simple things in life, like football, family and friends.
FC7 in 2021
It would be easy to sit back dust off a cigar and raise a glass of brandy, rum or gin, patting ourselves on the back as to what we have achieved. But that's not the FC7 Way.
Jumbo, up there with "Said" in Legendary Status
Footy is a strange thing, no matter how great it gets, it can always get better infinitely, we can't get complacent. Just ask Jumbo, it's almost a weekly task of rallying the troops, organising the game, running around trying to find replacements for a drop out. It's tireless effort, so we reserve the biggest thank you for Jumbo, not only does he carry us on the pitch, but off it too! It's worth noting at this point that annoyingly Fatjet and Frodo have become cult figures to my nephew and niece, Dani & Boff. Begrudgingly i guess they have earnt this praise.
His, Frodo, Billy and Teys aid will surely be required as we look to make FC7 bigger and better than ever. We generally got 2 levels we're looking to improve. On and off the pitch.
On the pitch, during this 3rd lockdown, at least myself and Jumbo, are on the fitness freakout. 5am runs, power walking, aerobic endurance and weight training. We want to be ready for when footy returns, we want to be FITTER, STRONGER....BETTER. I know many of you will yawn if you see me mention fitness again, but without it, we will stagnate. Fitness isn't just about running and endurance. It's mental improvement, healthy mind = healthy body etc, the ability to turn on pace, make space and man mark. Jan and Billy are our dynamos currently but we need to up that more throughout the team. We'll be doing an article on 5-a-side tactics soon (which apply to 6/7-a-side too), fitness will once again be a recurring theme, but the small-sided game is very different from the main game, consequently so are the tactics. If you're new to footy, then you'll find these articles an eye opener, read them inside out, its taken us 12 weeks to start comprehending some of the basics. So it will be really good to get our fitness to a level where we can start implementing these ideas on the hallowed green turf.
Off the pitch, our key goals remain.
- Up our membership
- Keep playing regularly each week
Some new things we have lined up for 2021 are:-
- The potential for an IT vs FINANCE game (and other flavours when we have the numbers) can look at Spring '21 for that game
- FC7 vs John Lewis; a re-match from 2019. They are a tough cookie, so we may need to get fully fit for this one, but all going well, that's another potential
- FC7 vs Mobeen Athletic; one of Pio's mates who joins us at the pub occasionally, mouthed off a little, but then ran scared when the prospect of actually playing us became a reality. This maybe harder to setup, but still, it's something we can work on.
- The League; this year we had serious plans on joining a league, we have been offered a few spots, but after the "Massacre of Westway" we decided it might not be prudent in terms of our mental makeup to join one just yet. We simply aren't fit enough. Once we are slimmed down and at peak condition, we will definitely revisit this idea.
- Tournaments; we have found out that there are a number of charity tournaments throughout the year that we can take part on, taking place on just 1 day, usually a Saturday. These could be nice day out for the team, a chance to measure our fitness without being demoralised every week, if we long term want to join a league, but also do our bit for charitable causes.
- FC7 Away kit, well, you saw how exciting it was with the HOME kit, we just gotta sort out an AWAY kit now. Keep an eye out for more news, colours being touted are YELLOW, RED, PINK, BLUE, WHITE and GREEN hahaha, so your guess is as good as mine.
A huge amount of the above is completely dependent on the global pandemic, so we will just have to wait and see. Most importantly, we have a culture of weekly play now, so we need to keep ramping that up and not slack off. But the most important thing is that we keep on enjoying the game we love so much.
2021
We're Coming for you....
...Fitter, Stronger, Better...
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