Courtesy: Asahi.com


Hope and recovery: Futsal team helps Urayasu recover, unite

by Kosuke Inagaki

8/6/2011

This is the last installment of a five-part series on how survivors are recovering with the help of sports more than two months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Two days after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, Kiyoharu Asano, general manager of Bardral Urayasu, a team in Japan's futsal league, made a phone call to an acquaintance who works for Urayasu City Hall.

"Is there anything I can do to help recovery efforts?" he asked.

That phone call was the start of a major effort by players of the indoor soccer club in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, to bring residents together after the quake created widespread damage due to area liquification.

The earthquake struck the Tohoku region the hardest, but Urayasu suffered massive damage as well because much of the city is built on landfill, and liquefaction caused streets and roads to cave in. Major lifelines, such as the sewage system, have been disrupted. Urayasu Sogo Taiikukan gymnasium, Bardral Urayasu's home venue, has been rendered unusable as well.

To remove the massive amounts of dirt in the streets, large-scale mobilization of labor was crucial. So the futsal team decided to register about 20 of its staff members and players as city disaster management volunteers and help with cleanup efforts.

In addition, the volunteers began community service activities such as kicking the ball around with kindergartners to help cheer up kids.

Many Urayasu residents feel little connection to their city. The city is home to Tokyo Disneyland and many of the roughly 160,000 residents work in neighboring Tokyo. The city is divided into two categories--areas that used to be inhabited by fishermen for generations, and landfill areas littered with stand-alone houses and soaring high-rise apartments. And there had been little interaction between new and old residents. Damage from the quake was also concentrated in areas where many new residents live in high-rise apartments.

Because of this kind of local sentiment, Bardral did its best to be as community-based as possible when it was based in Urayasu in 2006. It decided that more than half the members of the top team should be those who were trained from its affiliate teams. As an investment to help achieve this goal, the team actively hosts futsal lessons for elementary school kids, in the five-a-side indoor soccer game. It also has close ties to the local government, with Mayor Hideki Matsuzaki being an avid supporter. "He watched more than 90 percent of the home games," according to a team official.

Bardral GM Asano has a clear image of his ideal city.

"The team's win or loss would be a natural part of the residents' daily lives," he says. "I want Bardral to be that well known."

But financial woes are a problem. More than half of the team's annual operating costs of more than 60 million yen ($748,600) come from donations from sponsor firms. Roughly 40 percent of those corporate sponsors are local firms.

This season, many companies will be struggling with their mainstay businesses, which will make it difficult for Bardral to ask sponsors to increase or maintain their financial support. So the team is prepared to cut costs in a bid to continue playing.

Spring is the off-season for the F.League, which kicks off at the end of July. So futsal players have been hosting local charity events and collecting donations.

"This year is a special season," said Japanese national team member Yusuke Komiyama. "It's only a matter of winning or losing a futsal game, but we have pride in the fact that our team name includes the city we represent."

Looking back on the two months after the quake, Asano said: "Our genuine interaction with the local community came in handy when helping with relief efforts. By working together with local residents to remove dirt, I think the players have also strengthened their love for the city they represent."




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com