England U17 squad skip training for community work in Kolkata

After picking up two wins from their first two games at the U17 World Cup in India last week, the Young Lions squad made a special trip out to a school in Kolkata to meet and play football with local children.

The England squad, who have secured a knockout berth in the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 with a game to spare, cancelled their training on Thursday, and instead got down to community work at Newton. 

"It was about doing some community work as it's really important that the players give something back," England chief coach Steve Cooper said.

"We've come here and it's important we show a little bit of respect and it's important that we learn a bit about the part of the world that we've come to."

The England players discussed both the game and their lives and backgrounds with the children, and also spoke about their training methods.

Apart from the boys and girls of the Newtown School, children came from two UK-supported projects which utilised football and sports to empower young people, especially those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and communities.

Many of the children came from the 'Kolkata Goalz' programme — a Premier Skills project which helped build positive relationships between young people in deprived areas and the local authorities through sport.

The project was led by the British Council and the Kolkata Police with inputs from the Premier League in the UK.

Children also came from the British Council's 'DOSTI Sports for Peace' Programme which used community sport and a series of social development modules to engage young people living in disadvantaged communities and deliver positive and effective changes in their behaviour and lifestyle.