THERE ARE COUNTLESS reasons why a GAA club in Phnom Penh, Cambodia should not thrive.
And given the obstacles in place, the work of Cairde Khmer – a club founded in 2017 – has been remarkable.
With both men’s and women’s gaelic football teams, over 90% of the playing population are native Cambodians.
“We’re pulling in I’d say between 40 and 45 Cambodians at the minute at training nights,” club chairman and Cork native Ronan Sheehan tells The42.
“A lot of these players don’t come from a sporting background whatsoever.
“Some of the lads do, some of them are quite good soccer players. I would say all of them are AFL players as well. We’ve got a good crossover with the local AFL club.
“The women’s team, they come from absolutely zero sporting background. Organised sports for women here is really in its infancy.”
Nonetheless, they band together at weekly training sessions. The nearest GAA clubs are in Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. But with a Cairde Khmer branch also in the nearby Siem Reap, they manage to organise regular in-house games.
When more competitive action is needed, they improvise with an ‘international rules’ match against the local Australian Rules team.
Given the travelling involved, larger tournaments are less frequent, but they go to significant lengths to attend the South Asian Games and the Asian Gaelic Games championships each year.
“We won the 2019 Asian Gaelic Games for the men’s in the junior category. We won the South Asian Games in 2019 also, in the men’s category, the juniors,” Sheehan details.
“That’s no mean feat. You’re talking about teams coming from 13, 14 countries, and all these teams are predominantly Irish. We’re a bit of an anomaly in terms of the fact we’ve got so many locals playing for us. It generally doesn’t happen.
“We went to the 2022 Asian Gaelic Games in Kuala Lumpur in October just gone. We brought a record 16 Cambodians with us. Just to give you an idea of how big that was for us, the average wage here is $190 a month. A lot of our players are coming from not the nicest of backgrounds, to be honest. Ever since we set up the club, we’ve always run on the mantra that Cambodians would play for free.
“We’re an equity-based club, not an equality-based club. Foreigners, you pay your $3.50 for training. If we’re going to a tournament, you pay your flights, accommodation and tournament fees. It’s not much for an ex-pat or a foreigner living here. For a Cambodian, it’s damn near impossible to do any of that.
“So we’ve always run on the basis that they will always play for free. We will always support them to get to these tournaments. We brought 16 this year to the Asian Gaelic Games in Kuala Lumpur which was massive for us.”
Both the men’s and the women’s teams reached their respective Asian Gaelic Games finals in October, opening up a new world of opportunity.
“It was on the basis of that tournament, the Asian County Board reached out to us and said the World Games are reconvening this year,” Sheehan continues.
“Obviously they stopped after 2019 with the pandemic. They’re starting again this year.
“We’re entering the non-Irish category. So you have to be from the area you’re representing to be on these teams. We’re not representing Cambodia, we’re representing Asia. This is the first time ever it’s been one club making up the numbers for the entirety of the region. Before it was a mishmash of different countries sent over.”
Transporting an entire panel from Cambodia to Owenbeg in Derry doesn’t come cheap. In fact, the total bill will come in between €65,000-€70,000.
“Yeah. Every time we mention that number, there’s been a collective whistling of air through teeth!” laughs Sheehan, when drawing that exact response from this writer.
Bucket-shaking is in full swing as a result.
“Our players have no hope of getting out of Cambodia to the regional tournaments. It’s on us to try and get that all in place,” he adds
“We’re reaching out frantically as much as we can…Getting our story out there so people can know what we’re about and what we’re trying to do. At the moment, we’ve got the GoFundMe up. That’s been going since just before Christmas. That’s brought us up to about €9,000, that’s coming from the general public.
“We’re looking at sponsorship as well. So we’ve been reaching out to various companies, mostly around Ireland but in Cambodia as well.
“It’s almost like trying to get All-Ireland tickets — but it’s not a ticket, it’s €70,000! We’re chasing every avenue we can. We’re pretty confident we can do it. We’ve done a fair amount. We’ve brought that figure down from €65,000 to €38,000.
“Obviously it’s not a walk in the park, there’s still a way to go there yet, but slowly and surely, we’re clawing it in as best we can. The GAA HQ will be looking to support us as well. We’ll be finding out a bit more from them as it goes on, how they’ll be supporting us, but they will be, so that’s massive for us as well.
“The very nature of this club has been ‘backs against the wall’, doing it in spite of everything that’s going on around us and getting it done anyway. It’s very much the case with the drive to Derry as well.”
As Cairde Khmer take on their greatest challenge yet off the field, they will draw on their track record of achieving against the odds.
All going well, expect a team of Cambodian gaelic footballers to pitch up at Derry GAA’s Centre of Excellence in Owenbeg next July.