By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College University of Sierra Leone has on Saturday 29th October 2022 held another friendly Football Match with the Gansu Construction Investment (Holdings) Group Company Limited on the theme: “Show Your Style, Pursue Your Dreams” The friendly match was played at the Siaka Stevens National Stadium Main Bowl in Freetown.
The friendly match ended 4-2 in favor of the Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College University of Sierra Leone.
Speaking to this medium, the Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College, Professor Jing Man, said that they are very happy to play the friendly Football Match with the Gansu Construction Investment (Holdings) Group Company Limited football.
He pointed out that the football game is geared towards enhancing friendship which is not only the friendship between the Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College and Gansu Construction Investment (Holdings) Group Company Limited.
She continued that the game will also help their physical fitness and promote communication between employees, enhance collective cohesion and team building.
She pointed out that football is a very good means of exercise as it builds someone’s strength, stamina and speed and that it improves concentration, coordination, promoting teamwork, being social and boosting someone’s confidence.
Professor Jing Man said that the Confucius Institute has local staffs and students while CCECC also employs local staffs and that the football friendly has created the platform for them to interact with Chinese staffs and the local staffs which she said will continue to build the good friendship between the people of China and Sierra Leone.
She concluded by congratulating the Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College University of Sierra Leone for emerging as the winner in the friendly football match and also wished Gansu Construction Investment (Holdings) Group Company Limited a better luck next time.
On his part, the General Manager of Gansu Construction Investment (Holdings) Group Company Limited, Qiao Shu Bin said that the friendly football match is very important to them as it enabled them to relate with the Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College.
He said that as a company working in Sierra Leone they have enjoyed a very good relationship with the Sierra Leonean staff they are working with, stating that the Sierra Leoneans staff at GCIGC make up the majority of their staff and they are learning a lot form the Sierra Leonean staff.
Qiao Shu Bin congratulated the Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College for winning the match and also encouraged his team to accept the defeat.
He said that as a team they will go back and look at their mistakes and train more in order for them to emerge as the winner in any of their subsequent matches in the mere future.
The Local Director of Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College, Rev. Oliver Harding, congratulated his team for winning the match which he said is as a result of hard work after they were defeated by CCECC in their previous match.
He said that the institute has been established at Fourah Bay College since 2012, that they have been organizing Chinese programs including Diploma studies and cultural cooperation, and because of the demand from students who are passionate about the language the Institute decided to start the degree course for students.
Rev. Oliver Harding pointed out that the Football Match is geared towards promoting the mutual understanding and friendship between Sierra Leonean lecturers, students, and their Chinese counterparts of which he said the team is a combination of both Chinese and Sierra Leonean lecturers and students of the Institute.
The Captain for the Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College Team, who also doubles as Local Lecturer at the Institute, Gibrilla Sesay, said that their winning is as a result of the hard work of the team.
He said that after losing to CCECC they went back and looked at their mistakes of which they were able to rectify.
Official presentation of prizes to the players of the two teams by the Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at Fourah Bay College, Professor Jing Man, and the General Manager of Gansu Construction Investment (Holdings) Group Company Limited, Qiao Shu Bin formed the highpoint of the event.
