Burghfield footballers fail in world record attempt

Injury cut short AFC Corinthians' attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest football match

A FOOTBALL team from Burghfield has failed in its attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest football match but raised £7,000 for charity in the process.

AFC Corinthians, who play in the Reading Football Saturday League, took on the challenge at the Civil Service Club in James Lane, Burghfield, starting on Friday (May 27).

The world record currently stands at 60 hours but the club got to 30 hours before injury ended the attempt.

AFC Corinthians player-manager, Matthew Charters, was pleased with the £7,000 raised for the Royal Berkshire Cancer Clinic, the Berkshire MS Centre and Daisy's Dream, a charity supporting bereaved children.

He said: “I think we set off too fast. We lost three guys to injury in the first three hours. Once you start to lose players everyone's breaks get shorter. We got to a point where we couldn't get enough players out on the pitch.

“Ultimately we raised a lot of money which we set out to do. It would have been nice to break the record but records are there for a reason.

“We'll try again next year with a more prepared group.”

A previous attempt to break the record for the world's longest football match, at another event for charity held at the Burghfield Community Sports Association club in James Lane in May last year, was abandoned after 22.5 hours of play after one of the players collapsed.