Football League clubs in support of Onagawa

Sometimes you don’t need multi-million pound advertising budgets or the support of famous faces to spread the word. Sometimes you just need to read something that affects you and that you think other people should know about. These words are taken from the Onagawa Supporters website. All we can do is help in some way.

“Onagawa is a small town on the coast of Miyagi prefecture, north-east Japan. In the tsunami of 11th March 2011 it suffered appalling damage and loss of life: writing from Onagawa shortly after the disaster, the Washington Post reported that half of the 10,000 population were likely to have died.

The whole of the main part of Onagawa town has been destroyed by a wave that in places reached 24 metres (78 feet) high. For the survivors, many of whom are sleeping on the floor of the municipal sports hall up on higher ground, food, water and power are all in very limited supply. Late winter still sees sub-zero temperatures at night. There is little reliable communications infrastructure either by phone or internet.

Before the tsunami, Onagawa made its living mainly from fishing and the oyster farms. The highlight of downtown Onagawa was Marine Pal, a little aquarium developed as a tourist attraction in a place that was just that bit off the beaten track. It was a working seaport, not a beauty spot, but Onagawa thought of itself as a community — and it was trying hard to keep its future alive.

One way it had been doing this was through the formation in 2006 of a football club, Cobaltore Onagawa. The purpose of the club has always been to encourage young people to remain in the town rather than move to a bigger city. Since the tsunami, Cobaltore players have involved themselves in beginning the colossal task of rebuilding Onagawa. The football club now functions as a way of helping the community to start again.”

Please help to spread the word by posting the link below on your club’s messageboard.

The Seventy Two

The Seventy Two published an outstanding series of articles about the Football League between 2010-12 and was the brainchild of Leicester City fan, David Bevan. As well as collaborating with The Two Unfortunates on the Football League Blog Network and a mammoth 2011-12 season preview, the site featured a host of leading bloggers and David was rewarded with a nomination in the 2011 Football Supporters’ Federation awards. Latterly, he was joined as co-editor by Joe Harrison and TTU is happy to present this archive of the site’s output.