There’s a World Cup coming up. No, really. England may be playing down their chances, Wales haven’t even bothered qualifying, but there is still much fun to be had. Nigeria and Colombia battling it out for the hearts of the kit hipsters, France and Belgium vying to see who can implode the most spectacularly despite an embarrassment of playing riches; Vladimir Putin contemplating joining in a Mexican Wave. And, of course, the World Cup sweepstake.
You’re probably in a sweepstake at work; one that will get won by the person in finance you’ve never heard of, who doesn’t really follow football and keeps asking how Team GB are doing and why Gavin Southgate hasn’t picked Gareth Bale. You probably won’t win ours either, but at least you’ll be contributing to a good cause.
Because whilst the media readies itself to eek out any possible column inch or click from the merest hint of hooliganism, the reason for our sweepstake is violence much closer to home, in every sense. Statistics and reports from past tournaments have shown a frightening correlation between England World Cup games and increases in domestic violence against women. A study around the 2010 World Cup showed this rise to be as much as 25% following England matches, and during the 2014 World Cup police forces in West Yorkshire and Kent respectively reported increases in call-outs to cases of domestic violence
With that in mind – as with previous major tournaments – the purpose of our sweepstake is to highlight this saddening facet of football, and support a group on the frontline for sufferers of domestic abuse; South Yorkshire Women’s Aid, Doncaster. It’s a minimum of £3 to enter our sweep, of which £1 goes into the prize fund, and £2 to SYWAD. If you choose to pay more to enter – as you’re welcome to do so – it will all go to the charity.
The prize fund for the tournament is as follows; should your team win you get £20, if they finish second you’ll get £5; win the the third place play-off and you’ll get £4, whilst if your team finishes with the worst record of any country at the World Cup you’ll get your £3 back.
As we’re sadly lacking in free time at present, entry is available only to people with twitter accounts who are able to make payment via PayPal. So if you don’t have PayPal, please do not enter.
If we fill the 32 team places quickly – which hopefully we will – then we’ll open up another 32 team sweep. The draw will take place once all spots are filled.
If you want to take part, tweet us @vivarovers and we’ll get in touch to confirm payment details.
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