Jaafar Khalil wants to share his passion for soccer with underprivileged youth, but without the hefty price tag.
Khalil, who has been playing competitive soccer his entire life, has always thought that programs in Ottawa are cost-prohibitive.
After he moved back to Canada from Lebanon with his mother in 2012, he wanted to continue playing a sport he loved, but recreational youth programs could run anywhere between $75 and $385, depending on the league. If Khalil wanted to join a competitive program, those costs could even balloon to $985.
“Soccer is really, really expensive in Canada. It’s crazy. I come from a single-mother household. Our lifestyle wasn’t the best growing up,” Khalil told the Ottawa Citizen.
That was when Khalil came up with the idea to start Mama Africa FC, a non-profit organization that provides soccer programs, equipment and training to youth and adults for free.
“I asked a friend of mine who owns a restaurant on Bank Street if he could sponsor a team, and he said yes. Then I started reaching out to people to see if they wanted to play. I found out it wasn’t just me who found (soccer programs) expensive,” he added.
“We played in a league and won for the very first time. I thought, ‘Why not do it again?’ Why don’t I help people out so they don’t have to pay for jerseys, registration fees, etc.?”
The program has grown since then.
Khalil said he receives five to six messages daily from parents who want to sign their kids up for soccer programs with Mama Africa FC.
He plans on launching a free youth soccer academy in January to teach 100 kids from low-income families how to play the sport.
“(Mama Africa FC) started just for adults, and some of the players on the team have kids, and they want their kids involved in the movement. I then started reaching out to charities to put together the academy,” Khalil said.
“We’re gonna filter those people based on whether their situation allows them to play or doesn’t allow them to play. If there’s, for example, a rich family and they want to enroll their kids in a free academy, we’re not going to accept that.”
“We want to do it for people who cannot afford to play. We’re planning to only have 100 kids to start the pilot program for a year. We’ll train them once a week. We’ll have one-on-one sessions as well.”
Mama Africa FC also partnered with the African Canadian Association of Ottawa (ACAO) and other local businesses for funds to hire coaches and physiotherapists for the league, as well as to buy equipment for the competitive team.
“We acquired two professional players: one played for Colombia, and one played for Cuba … They like the team, and they want to see if they can come and help win (Socca Canada Grand Prix 2025),” Khalil said. “That was a tournament that had players from the Canadian national soccer team, and we won the whole thing.”
Community boost needed, Khalil says
Despite the help from sponsors, Mama Africa FC is still running into financial challenges.
The competitive team was invited to play at the Golden Goal tournament in Toronto on Dec. 27, but Khalil was still $1,200 short of his $10,000 fundraising goal as of Dec. 13.
Most of the money raised has gone towards logistics: food, accommodations and registration fees. Now, Khalil just needs more money to fund transportation costs for the team.
“We got a lot of help from organizations that just want to help us. We’re only missing $1,200 for the tournament, and it’s basically for transportation,” he said.
Khalil also says there’s been trouble securing a field for the youth soccer academy.
Currently, most soccer fields in Ottawa are owned by specific leagues and teams, and those teams control who gets to book and use the fields.
Fees can also be cost-prohibitive, Khalil says, with some charging $260 an hour.
“Once we get the field booked, the youth academy basically is set because everything right now is done, except for the field,” he noted.
Khalil has launched a GoFundMe so community members can donate money to help Mama Africa FC. Ottawans can also opt to e-transfer money if they want to avoid the GoFundMe fees.
Local businesses can also donate money to ACAO and receive charitable tax receipts, and all those funds will be forwarded to Mama Africa FC.
All the money raised will go towards the free youth academy and the competitive team, Khalil said, adding he has never taken a penny from the organization as income.
“If push comes to shove, I can pay the regular price and book a field, but we need to secure a field or multiple fields in the worst-case scenario,” Khalil said.
Dreaming big in the next year
The financial challenges aren’t stopping Khalil from setting lofty goals for the new year.
His biggest dream is to take a local team to compete in The Soccer Tournament in North Carolina next summer, when they would be competing for a $1-million prize with 46 other men’s teams.
For amateur teams like Mama Africa FC, they would need to hand over $50,000 to even be considered for a spot.
“It’s an absolute amazing environment to meet idols from the soccer environment if you love the game,” Khalil said.
“I believe that, when the community stands together, the $50,000 entry fee is not something hard to achieve. I want to try and make it happen so that I take a team from Ottawa, free of charge, to compete in the million-dollar tournament.
“I’ve already secured organizations that want to pay for our plane tickets if we go. I already found an organization that want to pay for our hotels if we go. So it’s coming together, but obviously it needs a bit of work.”
He also wants to take the Mama Africa FC competitive team to the Socca Grand Prix in Greece next year after speaking to the head of the Socca Federation.
“I started talking to organizations. I do have an organization that want to help us with the plane tickets to Greece. I do have an organization that will help us with the hotels when we go to Greece. This is definitely going to happen,” he said.
“It’s just a matter of finalizing the work for it.”
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