Parents build children a football field in Finland’s northernmost village

Parents and volunteers have built a football field for children in Nuorgam, Finland’s northernmost village, Yle reports. The first cross-border Finland-Norway football match was played at the new field, with the Tana football club from Norway helping to test it.

Volunteers from the Deanu Vuoibmi sports club, whose name means “the strength of the Teno”, built the field so that all the children in the village could play football.

Parents came up with the idea after seeing how much the children enjoyed travelling to the neighbouring village of Tana Bru in Norway to play. The village already had good football fields.

“They have such good fields there that we thought, could we have one too?” said Nuorgam father Asko Länsman.

The project gained momentum when a private landowner allowed the villagers to use the land. Construction began last summer. The children’s parents worked together to clear, thin and level the ground before sowing the grass.

“Everything has been achieved through cooperation and working together. We work together, cook together, eat together and share the same joy with one another,” Länsman said.

Football cooperation crosses the border

The Tana football club has inspired children in Nuorgam to take up the sport. Länsman said the cooperation had been important because the children from Nuorgam had been warmly welcomed and had encouraged one another.

Many children from Nuorgam have attended football training in Tana Bru for several years. Länsman believes the cross-border cooperation will remain strong.

“We have a good and warm connection with each other. Sometimes, if we cannot take the children to training ourselves, they have come to pick them up,” he said.

Länsman said adults were responsible for maintaining cooperation across the border. In his view, it creates new opportunities, increases understanding and reduces prejudice.

Tana football club coaches Knut Vidar Mathisen and Lasse Varsi Solbakk have worked with people from Nuorgam for five years.

“This cross-border cooperation is extremely important, and I believe it will continue for a long time, as it has before. Football brings us together,” Varsi Solbakk said.

The cooperation also helps children learn languages naturally. Finnish children learn Norwegian at football training, while Norwegian children learn Finnish, the coaches said.