Welcome to Tesfa Football Club!
Tesfa FC is a football club in Asmara, Eritrea. The team participates in the highest division in the Eritrean football league, with a team in both the men and women top divisions.
What makes Tesfa unique from all other Eritrean football clubs is the huge children tournament. Currently 160 teams participate in the tournemant from the age 8-13. All these junior teams play every weekend at 7 different fields in Asmara, and there is no similar offer to children and youth in Eritrea that can compare to this. The beauty of the tournament is that it aims to include all children, from regular games for boys and girls to special initiatives for deaf and blind.
To organize the tournement, 70 diabled people from the war participate as team leaders, referees and organizational staff in addition to the more senior Tesfa football players. In this regard Tesfa also stand out from the croud, as their top division players do not get their salary for playing football itself, but for their contribution to the tournament.
Tesfa is in a difficult financial situation going forward
Tesfa was established by Trygve Thodesen in 1994, a Norwegian who spent 14 years of his life in Asmara dedicated to help developing the country after its independance in 1993. After Terje left Asmara in 2006, the team has been fully run by local Eritreans who "grew up" within the activities of the club. Today, the team provides more than 100 Eritreans a full time job, a scarcity in the Eritrean society.
To keep the activiites running and providing salary and security to all the great contributors and players, Tesfa is depending on a stable source of income. For the last years Norges Handikapforbund has supported the club, but further contribution is not yet confirmed. The club is recently also in dialogue with the Norwegian Emabssy in Asmara for support, but additional funding is critically needed.
Since the very beginning, Tesfa has had very strong links to Norway, and a broad range of private individuals support the club. The involvement has led to the establishment of the Tesfa Supporterclub, recently officially registered as an organization in Brønnøysundsregisteret. The Supporterclub is regularily in dialogue with the management of the club, and the purpose is to provide support, advice and funding to keep the activities running successfully.
Due to the uncertainty of future funding from Handikapforbundet and the Norwegian Embassy in Asmara, it is now more important than ever to ensure a stable income through the Supporterclub. If you are interested in contributing to the Tesfa initiatives, please sign up as a memeber now and support the club with a monthly small membership fee. Click the following link to go directly to the registration details.