BY ELIZABETH HAYS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, January 15th 2008, 4:00 AM
Goal! The international soccer jersey incident is now officially over.
A shipment of donated soccer goods from a Boerum Hill school finally reached a group of Cambodian orphans last week after being held up for 16 months by allegedly corrupt port officials demanding hundreds of dollars in "fees."
"I feel happy because we were able to help a poor country," said Eli Shirk, 11, whose mother, Paula, founded the nonprofit behind the shipment as a way to help the birth village of Eli's adopted brother, Rudi, 6.
"It was unfair they wouldn't give them everything," said Eli. "It didn't seem right they didn't want to help their own country."
The delivery brings to an end a frustrating 18 months for the students of Public School 261, who gathered the used goods and shipped them off in August 2006. The equipment arrived in Phnom Penh just two months later - but the mission stalled when Cambodian port officials demanded "fees" from $650 to $1,560 to release the goods to the Palm Tree Institute orphanage.
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