Football tournament could help net cash for mosque's rebuild project

The six-a-side event is being played at Wakefield Indoor Football Centre at Thornes Mill to help pay for the refurbishment of the Masina Masjid mosque in Agbrigg.

A half-marathon run last year helped raise almost £50,000 and organiser and head of the Madina Masjid committee, Shafqut Choudry, is hoping the latest event can be just as successful.

He said: “We have had a lot of interest in this, we’ve tried getting teams from different cities and we have so many different nationalities who are going to be playing.

“This will make it as competitive as possible.

“You can’t go wrong doing things like this, and we’re hoping to just unite all these different backgrounds.

“We set a £50,000 target for the half marathon last year and we fell just short of that, so this time I don’t want to put us under pressure.

“This is more about the taking part anyway.”

More than 30 sponsors are backing the tournament, and if anyone is interested in supporting or playing they can call Shafqut on 07718 606505.

The Madina Masjid launched its appeal last year for volunteers and donations to help pay for expanded facilities for the community.

The project involves the demolition of the existing building and is expected to cost around £800,000 in total.

The re-built mosque will include a new kitchen area and bigger halls for attendees at Jumma and Eid prayers.

Donations are being taken online at www.justgiving.com/madinamasjid