All-star matches and a concert featuring local and overseas artists will be held at the National Sports Centre on April 29, aimed at reaching at-risk youths in the wake of ongoing violence.

However, the Bermuda International Football Festival, a community outreach initiative through football, will not be a one-off.

There are already plans to expand the event in 2018 to include the International Star Sevens, a seven-a-side round-robin tournament involving former overseas professional players.

The April 29 event will feature a youth representative match followed by an all-star game involving the island’s top players and a special performance by United States freestyle football champion Frankie Gonzalez, of New York, who performed at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The new committee includes former professional players Clyde Best, Shaun Goater and David Bascome, as well as Charles Marshall, a former president of the Bermuda Football Association, and Rick Richardson as chairman.

Goater, who now lives in England, is scheduled to return to Bermuda for the festival.

Also on the committee are former player and coach Leroy “Nibs” Lewis, Troy Harvey, a youth football advocate, and Mervyn Grant, who is the project director.

“The Bermuda International Football Festival will engage Government, corporate Bermuda and the international companies, to support and sustain this important project,” Richardson said yesterday at a press conference at the Clyde Best Centre of Excellence.

“It is but one step in the range of initiatives identified by the Joint Select Committee on Violent Crime and Gun Violence as something urgently needed.”

Richardson spoke passionately about the role of sports clubs in tackling antisocial behaviour at their grounds during the recent Alpha Symposium hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc at CedarBridge Academy.

Incidents of violence have been on the rise with Raymond Butterfield, of First Division Wolves, fatally stabbed outside the Blue Waters Anglers Club this month.

Mikiel Thomas, 19, a Bermuda Under-20 footballer, has been charged with unlawful killing in connection with the incident.

“The wanton killing of more than 30 young black men in the prime of their lives, the seemingly assembly line of new recruits ready to take the step from innocent Middle School student to ‘gang banger’ should be enough to spur those of us on the outside looking in to mobilise a counter movement to reverse the trend,” the committee said in a statement.

The committee referred to a special report compiled by the Joint Select Committee in 2011 and signed by Michael Dunkley, now the Premier, and Randy Horton, the present Speaker of the House, which stated at the time: “The challenges confronting Bermuda are very wide and complex and the committee has made a first step towards erasing violent crime and gun violence from our community and to encourage continued dialogue among all, and to bring the Government and private sector together consistently to address this social problem.”

However, the Bermuda International Football Festival committee believes not enough is being done to tackle the serious issues.

“While the 2011 Joint Parliamentary Report was quite direct in its recommendations, very little has been done in the broader community to tackle the problems,” the committee stated.

“Few community initiatives, outside of the familiar helping agencies, have come to the fore.”

The Bermuda Football Association is lending its support to the initiative. “I’m definitely happy to be here and part of something very positive in football,” Mark Wade, the BFA president, said.

“There are numerous negative things talked about football, footballers and our young men in particular, but here we have a positive venture that’s going to put our football in a very positive light and we’re looking forward to partnering with the Bermuda International Football Festival.

“The BFA is fully supportive of this initiative.”

Richardson, a former coach with Warwick Workmen’s Club and Southampton Rangers, hopes the event can help galvanise the community and raise funds for the Gina Spencer Productions Charity’s champions programme, which takes care of children left behind by gun violence and antisocial behaviour.

Goater, speaking from England during the press conference, said: “This can reach the community at large and that’s the most fascinating thing for me.”

Goater and Best’s connections in England, as well as Bascome’s in the US, will help to bring in former players to the festival next year, either as players or speakers.

“There is a huge list of connections that I have that can add to the elite level we’re looking at for the project,” Goater added.