On Saturday, AJ Chambers, the leading Rochford based recruitment agency for accountancy and legal professionals, held a 7-a-side football tournament between 32 local businesses to raise funds for HARP, Southend’s leading homelessness charity.
The third edition of the annual World Cup-on-Sea took place on Saturday 20th May at the iconic home of Southend United Football Club, Roots Hall.
The event was supported by headline sponsors Couno, Kimura and ETL Global, with additional sponsorship from Ipeco, Katy’s Café Lounge and SoloPress.
The standard of football was excellent, with 32 high quality business teams competing in the World Cup style knock-out tournament.
2022’s Champions, Colchester based accountancy firm Scrutton Bland, successfully defended their title, beating debutants MediLink Consulting Limited 2-0 in the final.
With help from supporters, World Cup-on-Sea 2023 has raised £39,400 through ticket sales, sponsorship, and charitable donations for HARP, Southend’s homeless charity. With some donations still to come in, the organisers and charity are hopeful that they will exceed the £40k target.
HARP help around 1,000 people every year who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness in Southend-on-Sea. They provide short and long-term accommodation to up to 264 people on a given night, and crucial support to help local people overcome homelessness for good.
Stephen Mansfield, Director of Fundraising & Communications at HARP, said: “We’re so grateful to our headline sponsors Couno, Kimura and ETL Global, and the event would not be possible without the amazing vision and passion of AJ Chambers, who created the event alongside HARP to help us raise vital funds for local people forced into homelessness. It was an absolutely amazing day, with beautiful weather, some amazing football and a brilliant sporting atmosphere. Well done to all the teams that took part and a huge thanks to everyone for their fundraising efforts!”
Andy Hilliard, Managing Director of AJ Chambers said: “Now in its third year, World Cup-on-Sea gets better and better, and 2023 was the best one yet! We had a remarkable group of industry-leading businesses taking part and we raised an incredible amount. All of this is only possible through the amazing project team from HARP and AJ Chambers, the support of SUFC and our sponsors.”
