THEY'RE football crazy, they're football mad - and staff from Youth for Christ (YFC) are arguably also football-insane. They are gearing up for a record-breaking, 48-hour-long, five-a-side football match to raise funds for the youth-focused mission agency.

To put that in context: when the two teams take to the field at the Goals Soccer Centre on the outskirts of Walsall, West Midlands, between 30 April and 2 May, they will play for twice as long as normal time during the entire knock-out stage of the World Cup Finals,

To qualify for an official Guinness World Record, the teams are restricted to a maximum five-minute break for every hour played. They are planning a 20-minute rest after each four hours of play, in addition to a series of rolling substitutions.

"We're passionate about football," the YFC national director, Gavin Calver, said. "In breaking this record, we want to raise great awareness of, and support for, the vital gospel work we are involved in among teenagers throughout Britain today."

The existing 42-hour record was set by Cochrane Rangers in Alberta, Canada, in October 2012.

The YFC team are already approaching the halfway mark of their £45,000 fund-raising target. To make a donation online, visit www.give.net/yfc48.