Requests for a new sports hall turned down by municipality

Newly-started Alla Östra Göinge IF has had difficulty in finding free passes for its activities, not least in Snapphanehallen in Knislinge. The club has been in Broby sports hall and played indoor football with 15 - 20-year-olds, but has now extended the age limits to 7 - 25, spread over different groups, where they have four slots a week.

So the club, with its chairman Abdirahman 'Abdi' Ali, has contacted the municipality in order to find out if they can consider footing the bill for a new hall, no strings attached. Preferably an indoor astroturf pitch.

Michael Torberntsson, head of community development in the municipality, says that besides indoor halls for various ball-games, there are already outdoor astroturf pitches in Sibbhult and Glimåkra.

”On the other hand we have no astroturf hall, and the municipality has no plans to build one either. The fact is that we have enough on our plate with reinvestments and running the facilities we have today”, Torberntsson writes in an email to 'Abdi'.

Earlier this year 'Abdi' was awarded Östra Göinge municipality's sports and leisure prize for his work in arranging indoor football meetings in Broby sports hall since 2019. He regards sports and club activities as an antidote to young people's being drawn into criminality.

The idea behind Alla Östra Göinge IF is not to promote competition in its own right, but to train football players so that the step over to local football clubs will not be so great.

– But naturally I have a big dream too. That in 2030 - 35 young people from Östra Göinge will go out into the world and play in different clubs. Maybe they can even get a place in the national team, says 'Abdi' with a smile.