A partnership between local Belgian football club Tempo Overijse and The British School of Brussels (BSB) has been officially agreed after a successful test phase at the beginning of the year saw players from the school turning out for the club in the Belgian leagues. The contract for the partnership with Tempo Overjise and BSB allows six football teams from BSB – three girls teams and three boys teams – to play competitively under the banner of Tempo Overijse.
BSB footballers will play in a specially designed Tempo Overijse kit which will feature the BSB logo on its sleeves, cementing the partnership and taking BSB’s football brand public in a wider competitive context beyond inter-school competition.
The partnership is the culmination of a long process which began in 2019 when staff members of the BSB football programme began discussing ways to provide our footballers with the opportunity to play all year round in competitive competitions.
“We started to explore the possibilities of how to give our players regular competition, regular opportunities, and regular fixtures,” said Andrew Hill, Enrichment Head Coach – Football. “We had several conversations with clubs but the one which seemed the best fit was Tempo Overijse. They got the concept of what we wanted to achieve and what we were offering, which was to have BSB players take part in the league season under the umbrella of a club, representing that club and wearing its colours. Tempo were completely on the same wavelength as us and with the help of Danilo, one of our coaches who was a former player at the club, we agreed on the soft launch earlier this year to see how it would all pan out.”
The test phase of six months saw three teams of BSB footballers play under the Tempo banner – under 13s boys, under 13s girls, and under 16s girls. This was the first time that Tempo Overijse had fielded female teams, and this fulfilled one of the main objectives of the partnership from the club’s side, which was develop its girls’ teams and enter them competitively.
This collaboration provides BSB with another offer for families who are considering the school for their child, who may have a strong interest in pursuing the football programme here. “For any new student who comes to BSB, we have the recreational programme for Primary, and now we have a competitive programme for Secondary,” said Vice Principal and Head of Secondary John Knight. “We now have that option for families with kids interested in football who want to play at a club. They can now do that through BSB and our partnership with Tempo. This a prime example of how football can help students become part of the BSB family but also how the school can make strong connections with the local community through collaborations such as this.”
As well as helping Tempo take its first steps into women’s football, the partnership also allows the club to further expand its know-how and vision for its youth players by working in tandem with the full-time professional youth football coaches we have at BSB.