In the rural Zambian community of Mfuwe, football training begins with singing.
Dressed in black and white Newcastle United shirts, the players of the Mfuwe Mags move across a dusty pitch as they prepare for matches in Zambia’s competitive local leagues.
Their colours and name immediately reveal their unusual connection to one of England’s best-known football clubs.
The link is thousands of kilometres away in north-east England, where Newcastle United supporter Crispin Mason-Jones has turned his passion for football into a long-running project supporting young players in Zambia.
What began in 2022 as an effort to save a struggling community football club has developed into a wider initiative providing football equipment to hundreds of children in and around Mfuwe.
Crispin first learned about the club while his wife, Dr Ellie Bond, was working in Zambia. The team was helping young people in the Mfuwe community but faced serious financial challenges, including a lack of football boots and playing kit and difficulties meeting the cost of travelling to away matches.
A passionate Newcastle supporter, Crispin decided to intervene. He raised sponsorship, adopted the club and began supplying equipment and financial assistance. The team subsequently became known as the Mfuwe Mags.
Four years later, the relationship has grown considerably.
The men’s senior squad now has 25 players and is pursuing promotion to Division One East, the third tier of Zambian football. Crispin continues to provide shirts and football boots while helping with travelling expenses.
“When I first heard about the club, I just wanted to help keep it going,” he said. “I never imagined that four years later I would still be involved – or that we would be talking about promotion.”
The project has also expanded into women’s football, with the establishment of the Mfuwe Mags Queens. Crispin provides playing kit while Ellie uses her medical experience to support the players’ wellbeing.
But the Newcastle connection extends well beyond the Mfuwe Mags.
Crispin collects unwanted football shirts, shorts, socks and other equipment from clubs in north-east England and arranges for them to be sent to Zambia. The donations are then distributed to schools and community teams around Mfuwe.
Among the clubs that have donated equipment are Blyth Town, Wallsend Boys Club, Easington, Whickham, Gateshead Redheugh, Catterick Garrison and Kingston Park. Football recycling organisations, including Taking Football to Africa and Beyond and KitAid, have also helped with the initiative.
Earlier this month, football kit was distributed to hundreds of pupils from 25 schools in the Mfuwe area.
For local sports teachers, such donations have significance beyond the value of the equipment.
Meleki Chipo said the children were delighted because football kit was difficult to obtain in the area.
“Giving us such a donation will go a long way and give the kids motivation to perform very well,” he said.
He added that football provides young people with an opportunity to develop their talents while helping keep them away from problems such as drug abuse, early marriage and teenage pregnancy.
Crispin believes the importance of football kit should not be underestimated.
“Kit is a big thing here. It is a mark of prestige – and belonging and being part of a team and everything that brings with it, like community,” he said.
Getting the equipment from Britain to rural Zambia, however, is a demanding process involving collection, sorting, packing, shipping and redistribution.
Another Newcastle supporter, Ian Macallan, chief operating officer of Project Luangwa, is also contributing to the development of sport in Mfuwe.
Project Luangwa works with local communities on education, tourism and gender programmes. In July, it received a $150,000 grant from FIFA’s Global Citizen Education Fund to develop sporting opportunities in Mfuwe.
The project plans to provide facilities for football, tennis, basketball and netball, giving children opportunities to develop sporting, leadership and teamwork skills.
For Crispin, the most rewarding part of the initiative is the relationship that has developed with the Zambian players and community.
“They are the Mfuwe Mags, but they are also very much part of the Newcastle family,” he said.
What started as an attempt to keep a struggling Zambian football club alive has therefore become a much wider story about sport, community and an unlikely footballing bond between Newcastle and Mfuwe.
Courtesy of the BBC
Picture: Mfuwe Mags