JEDDAH: Scores of parents, hundreds of enthusiastic children and some very nervous teachers will descend on the British School in Jeddah (BSIJ) tomorrow to engage in the annual Festival of Football.

The day mixes 320 children from 10 schools into 32 teams that compete with all the dedication of their professional counterparts for the day's honors. The real winners will however be the charities that will benefit from the generosity of the schools, participants and Saudi commercial sponsors behind the event.

"This year we will be raising money from the event to build a library for an orphanage in Malawi," festival organizer Tarryn Pratt of BISJ told Arab News.

"The school has donated money to the orphanage in the past through "no-uniform" days but this year it will be the main charity." Other local charities will also benefit from the day.

BISJ has a family connection with this year's main charity; the parents of a teacher from the school have been occupied building the orphanage. The event has become something of a feature on the Jeddah school calendar over the years. Schools from across Jeddah and from as far away as Yanbu assemble contingents of remarkably skillful pupils to enter. Despite the highly competitive nature of the day, the teams of 10 players, of whom seven take the field at any one time, are a mix of one representative of each school playing under the name of a famous European club. The sub-agendum is to introduce children of the many nationalities and cultures that make up the schools in Jeddah to each other and to the discipline of working together as a team for a common purpose.

Always remarkably well attended stand at the Spring Fair with a variety of intriguing diversions and the commercial sponsors' stands that runs simultaneously with the festival demonstrates that common purpose as fact not fantasy can be achieved. Nervous teacher "volunteers" submit themselves to payback-time in front of students armed with wet sponges. "It always surprises me how incredibly dedicated and accurate the throwers are," said one strictly anonymous target. "Ambitiously I think, we hope this dedication transfers into the classroom." The football kicks off at 8 a.m. and the Fair runs from mid-day to 3pm. The first half of the day is made up of pool matches, where teams receive points for winning a game which seeds them for the next half of the day. When not actively engaged in a match the children will also participate in a football quiz and art competition to have a break from the games. The second half of the day, the teams play each other in a knockout system through to the finals.

The schools entered are: Al-Wadi International School, American International School of Jeddah, British International School of Jeddah, Coral International School, French School, Global International School, Japanese School, Jeddah Preparatory Grammar School Jeddah International School and Yanbu International School.

Al-Batal Chips, Americana Biscuits and Meat, Cinnabon and Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol)are the sponsors.