Community cohesion football match raises £1,100 for Springhill Hospice

A community cohesion football match between Rochdale’s diverse communities and Greater Manchester Police has raised over £1,000 for Springhill Hospice.

Rochdale’s Bangladeshi Arts and Sports Association organised a match against the police at the Crown Oil Arena last week, which raised £1,100 for the hospice.

Known as the Community Cohesion Cup, the match marks the strong relationships being built by GMP and members of its minority groups in Rochdale to tackle social exclusion in society.

Over the last 12 months, BASA Rochdale has been working proactively with GMP Rochdale. In 2021, they decided to play a friendly football match to highlight the start of collaboration work, predominantly looking at tackling different elements of community cohesion, bridging the gap between diverse communities and GMP using sports.

The game on 23 May was a re-match of BASA’s 5-0 victory when the teams first met 12 months ago, however, this time, GMP reigned victorious with a 5-1 win.

 

 

 

GMP said: “GMP Rochdale were honoured to take on BASA Rochdale CIC again in the Community Cohesion Cup at Rochdale AFC to help raise money for Springhill Hospice.

“It was a fantastic match where GMP Rochdale were able to recover from their defeat last year to beat BASA and take home the cup, all the while, raising over £1,100 for Springhill.

“It was brilliant to see the new Mayor of Rochdale Syed Ali Ahmed, Rochdale Borough Council and our own Chief Superintendent Nicky Porter all there in support of the event which aims to bring communities together and raise money for the services that make Rochdale a better place.

“Thank you to everyone who came and made the event successful, and especially to BASA and their managing director, Doliz Miah, for curating the event and inviting the police into their plans for community cohesion across our borough.”

BASA is a non-profit organisation which was set up in Rochdale in 1990. It was created for the Bangladeshi community to keep socially and physically active, from organising football matches to helping anyone and everyone in any way possible, promoting community cohesion and tackling social exclusion, in particular using the power of sports and arts.

The teams plan to make the match an annual event.

Donations can still be made via JustGiving.