Weight loss football league is heading for Cambridge

Shed the pounds by joining the city's ManVFat league

It’s renowned for attracting teams like Maradona Kebab to the football field.

And now a league designed to help men lose weight is to be launched in Cambridge in the new year.

ManVFat, the brainchild of journalist Andrew Shanahan, will begin at the city’s Abbey Leisure Centre on January 15.

Organised in conjunction with Cambridge United’s Community Trust, the 16-week league will be one of around 45 across the UK when it opens. Dan Ford, business development manager at ManVFat, sees Cambridge as an ideal place for a new league and they are already on target to achieve their goals.

Coach Phil Mullen will work alongside Cambridge United Community Trust’s health and inclusion officer Andy Farrer to make the league a success in the city.

Mr Ford said: “Cambridge makes sense for us. We already have 25 individuals signed up for Cambridge already. When registration comes around in January, we will then put them into teams. We are aiming for between 60 and 80 people and we are confident of reaching that target.”

Before taking to the field, the players get weighed each week.

Mr Ford added: “If one or two of the team have lost weight, we gain an extra goal, and if three or four have lost weight, we get an extra two goals. So, before we even go on to the pitch, my team could be 3-1 up. It gives guys a real incentive because nobody wants to be the guy who lets the team down by putting on weight.”

With team names like Maradona Kebab, Three Stone Roses and Man Titty, the tongue in cheek attitude helps them to work hard at losing the weight. During a 16-week season, players, on average, lose almost two stone.

Mr Ford said: “Across 2016 our players lost more than seven tonnes and we know that we’re going to smash that in 2017 with leagues like the one in Cambridge.”

It costs £9.99 to register as a player, or £17.99 with a copy of the five-star rated ManVFat weight loss manual.