An Unforgettable Season

There are many comparisons to be drawn between our challenge and the world of football and most of these we have deliberately cultivated.  However, the biggest parallel of all happened by complete coincidence yet demonstrates perfectly where we are and what lies ahead of us. 

The life of The EuroChampsChallenge has spanned the length of the football season, and the journey along the way has mirrored one which many a football fan will relate to.

Having lived with the concept for five years, The EuroChampsChallenge was only properly planned and devised during the close season of summer 2010. And it was only as the football season kicked-off in the bright sunshine of August that it was brought to life.  As I sit here in the wonderful spring sunshine of the first day of May, I reflect over the last nine months and look at every result and use every experience to plan forward to the most critical period of all.  What happens in these next four weeks will define the challenge for eternity. 

The early days were sporadic and uncertain, and in many respects mirror exactly the early exchanges of a football season.  I put in place a game plan and built a team set to achieve nothing less than success.  I set out the targets and milestones we had to achieve.  The plan was ambitious in the extreme but there was no way we would win the title if we focused on avoiding relegation. 

As summer drifted to autumn it was becoming clear that we had the ability to succeed.  We launched the website in early October and started publicising the plan.  There were some great early results which really gave us the confidence to start believing.  Getting the backing of Celtic and Aston Villa proved that the clubs would back us.  Engaging with Ford and adidas proved positive and while we'd get nothing tangible for another couple of months, the initial discussions showed that we had something in which the corporate world might invest. 

Then - just to bring us down a notch or two - a couple of results went against us.  Two very significant parties would not be able to support us; in the period since the phrase 'doesn't fit within our CSR policies' is the most common follow-up to the 'thanks-but-no-thanks' response to some of our requests.  I think we always knew that we wouldn't achieve success with all of the companies we targeted, but at the time it was a blow.  Nevertheless, rather than be disheartened or knocked back, the negative experiences were used to galvanise the team to find positive ones to redress the balance.

In early November it was clear that we were more likely to be challenging for success than fighting failure.  In any event, we needed to add to the team and the most significant signing of all was made one cold but sunny Thursday afternoon in a hotel bar in Edinburgh.  After a pleasant coffee and a hard sell we managed to persuade Neil Gibson of The Big Partnership to help us with our PR.  "Pro-bono" is the official term, but we like to call it "for free".  What these guys brought to our challenge can never be overplayed.  Like a Claude Makelele, they have worked tirelessly and without recognition to ensure that we've been able to take the media opportunities whenever they've presented them to us.  The outside world may not know the value of this appointment, but everyone on the team would vote for Big Welshy as our player of the year.

As we approached the long dark winter months the domestic campaign was boosted with success in Europe, firstly with Bernd Wehmeyer at Hamburg and shortly after with Robert Prosinecki at Red Star Belgrade.  Momentum really was gathering but it was critical to maintain this through the dark winter months.  The festive period was a busy time for all but conversely meant that we made little progress.  Little progress until two days before Christmas when Ford confirmed that they would provide us with a car - not just for the trip but for a full 3 months prior.  Like a pre-contract agreement, we kept this news to ourselves until we were able to unveil our signing some 10 weeks later.  As the calendar flipped to 2011 we were featured for the first time in the Daily Record, and this was followed up by another couple of outlets. Things really started to move.

Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona are just some of the teams that were added to the stable and we started to focus on an official press launch at Celtic Park in March.  In the week before this we secured our first major sponsor, Savills, and on the eve of our photo call the fundraising sat at £15,000.  With the unexpected TV coverage on both BBC and STV, combined with broad print-media exposure, we were able to capitalise on the story and managed to average £5,000 a week over the next four or five weeks.  This coincided with a big push for corporate sponsors and the response to this was fantastic.  Almost every club was 'sold' and we also welcomed Bedell Cristin to the major sponsors list together with Simpson and Marwick and Capital Cooling.

The penultimate month of the season saw a number of results go in our favour.  During April we witnessed The EuroChicksChallenge, and the girls (and honorary girls) ran their 13.1 miles to achieve over £6,000 of sponsorship.  A couple of 10 year old girls did a mini-triathlon on our behalf and The Woodlane of Doune Fashion Show added another £1000. In a critical month we also secured the support of the Rezidor Group, offering us accommodation in Radisson and Park Inn hotels across the majority of our tour.  On the eve of the final month of the season the fundraising stood at £45,000.

And so we arrive at the start of May having achieved just about every goal we set ourselves, but also aware that - in reality - we've achieved nothing until the 28th May.  In a month where the tag 'massive game for us' is applied with alarming regularity, we have a few of our own.  We set off on our tour in 14 days and each and every one of the 14 days following that will be 'a massive day for us'.  The weekend in-between are hosting The Festival of Football and preparing for 350 children to descend on the village of Aberlady; we want to make sure that they have the time of their lives, and we also want to make sure that we take the opportunity to make the most of it.

In the next four weeks every football team in the land will experience the unbeatable feeling of success, the inconsolable emotion of failure, or the unenviable sense of mediocrity.  Which category we fall into remains to be determined, but I can assure you that whatever happens - whatever the outcome - we will give it our absolute best.

Footnote:
It is important to draw one last parallel.  Just as in football, we could not have done what we have done without the support and backing of all our followers.  Whatever we have achieved - whatever we're about to achieve - would not have been possible without you.  We are eternally grateful for that and hope you stick with us for these critical last four weeks.  I really mean it when I say that we need you every step of the way.

Life Changing Decisions

Almost exactly two years ago I made a life changing decision.  At over 16 stone and desperately unfit, I finally decided to do something about it.  The first step was joining a gym - which was relatively easy - and the second step was attending regularly, which I surprised most people and actually did.  While I had a specific routine and thought I knew what I was doing, the immediate results of the first two to three weeks soon tailed off and it became a little more challenging.  I needed a bit of help, and a lot of guidance.

But joining the gym wasn't what changed my life: persuading my family to ditch any ideas of birthday presents and instead contribute to a 12 week program with a personal trainer is what changed my life.  It was no accident that I ended up with Barry Marsh.  I’d seen him around the gym and he struck me as the man for the job for two reasons: firstly he was a similar height and build to myself and I thought would relate to my aims; and secondly he was a mean looking individual who I felt would really push me to get the results I needed.  And he did. 

I had never, ever, pushed myself to the extent that he pushed me.  I would not have thought it possible to put myself through the amount and intensity that he managed to get out of me in an hour.  I would arrive at the gym at 7am on a Monday morning and for the next hour work as hard as I could to prove to him that I could do it.  And every week I would leave him at 8am soaked with sweat and struggling to manage the stairs back to the changing rooms. Every week I made a vow to myself that I would be better prepared next time.  I would work three sessions in between and push myself to the same extent that he pushed me – just so that next Monday I’d be better placed to cope.  And I did.  But I wasn’t.  Because the fitter I got the harder he pushed. 

By the end of week 12 I had lost 35lbs and 25% of my body fat.  I dropped from a size 38” trousers to 32”/34”.  The transformation was incredible.  He had delivered what he said he would because I did what I said I would.

But the point of this is not about the physical changes, the point of this is the mental transformation.  The point is that Barry showed me what it was really like to work hard.  What it really meant to push yourself to places you really didn’t think you could.  The most important lesson I learned was this:  When you’re in the middle of a training session, when you’re at that point when you’re really hurting but you’ve got another half hour to go, when the physical pain is matched only by the mental torment of ‘I can’t go on’ versus ‘I will not quit’ - it’s at that point that you really find out who you are.  There was once or twice when I was training on my own between ‘Barry-sessions’ where I allowed the ‘I can’t go on’ to beat the ‘I will not quit’.  I took my foot off the gas.  I allowed myself a breather. I cranked down the gradient on the running machine, reduced the reps on the weights or shortened the sprints on the rower. And the satisfaction of that little breather was welcome relief.  It felt great, it really did.  And no-one knew.  No-one was watching and no-one was counting.  But – and it’s a big but – at the end of the session, when I reflected on the last hour, I would cringe.  I would look back and think: I could have worked harder; I could have pushed myself more.  And it’s at that point that you realise that there’s nothing that stings quite so much as the disappointment of knowing you’ve let yourself down.

So why is this relevant?  The EuroChampsChallenge has delivered everything we ever hoped it would. We’ve already raised £35,000 and have managed to publicise the event across all aspects of the media.  We’ve got all but two of the clubs on-side and we’ve got a fantastic group of events around the main tour which are proving to be both popular and financially rewarding.  We’ve got four high-profile Ambassadors that are adding value, and the feedback and the support we’ve received has been so far beyond expectation that not even the gulf between East Lothian and Bucharest could ably demonstrate it. 

But it’s not been easy.  With so much going on it takes all the time available and more.  Every night is spent sending emails, co-ordinating communication and managing logistics.  We’ve got a media plan that needs implemented, a 7000 mile journey to sort and 21 of the world’s biggest football clubs to keep informed.  We’ve got to keep our sponsors updated whilst trying to find new ones.  We’ve got 350 kids coming to a Festival of Football and plans to get a similar amount of adults to a fundraising dinner.  There is so much to do that I struggle to remember at times. 

Right now, I’m in the middle of a training session.  I know how much needs done and I know how long is left.  I know how much time, effort and resource is required to get us to where we want to go.  I also know that I could take my foot off the gas and no-one would really notice.  I know that I could ‘just leave that until tomorrow’ and not quite deliver everything that we know we can.  But I also know that if I do this, then the disappointment of not allowing the EuroChampsChallenge to reach its potential will live with me far longer than the sense of achievement for what we might manage.  And right now it’s the fear of disappointment which drives me more than the anticipation of achievement.

In the words of Eric Cantona: “I play to fight the fear of losing”