By Jon Junia
Special for The State News
Underneath the lights on a muddy Munn field on Saturday, a world record fell.
After 27 consecutive hours of playing soccer, a group of proud and soaking wet students celebrated by diving and sliding in the mud.
The game was organized by the McGlobe International Club, a social organization for international students based out of McDonel Hall, along with the Residence Halls Association and the IM Sports and Recreative Services Department.
More than 200 students participated in the event, although 300 signed up for two-hour blocks of playing time. The players could play as many shifts as they liked, and some - such as electrical engineering sophomore Keji Fatunde - played for more than 10 hours.
"It's been pretty awesome, everyone was cool," said Fatunde, who is from Nigeria.
The game began at 4:15 p.m. Friday and ended at 7:15 p.m. Saturday.
The 27-hour game is equivalent to 1,620 minutes, or 18 regulation soccer games. The old record of 26 hours was set by a Canadian team in August.
Mark Holbert, co-president of McGlobe and an education and administration graduate student, organized the game as a fundraiser for the Refugee Development Center located at Christ Lutheran Church, 122 S. Pennsylvania Ave., in Lansing.
The center helps refugees from around the world adjust to American life by providing free cultural orientation and education, including driving instruction and English as a second language classes.
Political science and pre-law senior and co-president of McGlobe Chris Moyer played more than 10 hours and refereed the match, making sure there were 11 players on each team at one time. Besides unlimited substitutions, the game followed FIFA rules.
The match began as a classic match between a green and white team. But due the excessive rain on Saturday, the teams were divided into those wearing black plastic garbage bags and those who were not.
"Despite the rain I ended up having a really good time," zoology and English junior Nathan Clay said. When he heard about the match from his resident mentor at McDonel Hall, he signed up for one block of playing time Friday night, but came back for two more hours on Saturday.
The skills of participants ranged from beginners to recreational players and even one player who spent time in the minor league system of David Beckham's Real Madrid. More than half of the players who participated in the record-setting match were from overseas, including a group of children from the Refugee Development Center who played on Friday night.
As players left the field after their block of time, they were asked to donate a few dollars to the Refugee Development Center. McGlobe was able to raise more than $400 dollars to help buy new computers and teaching materials for the center.
"We fought through cold nights and a muddy field and played worthy of a world record," said Holbert, as the game finally came to an end Saturday night.
Guinness World Records was informed of the match but has not yet officially recognized any soccer game as being the world's longest.
