Oficial Website of European Indoor Football Championships for Homeless

  

Between 5th and 7th September 2008 Saint Brother Albert`s Aid Society from Gdańsk, organized 4^th European Indoor Football Championships for the Homeless People, for the Cup of Polish Football Association. This huge task was possible for us to achieve only thanks to great support of President of Gdańsk, Mr. Paweł Adamowicz, together with his Department of Sport and Euro 2012, but also thanks to Pomeranian Football Association and Pomeranian Marshall Mr. Jan Kozłowski. This years event took place in Sport Hall of Gdańsk Sport Academy, under patronage of  Sport Academy Rector.

This time 10 teams from 10 European countries participated in the tournament, so its easy to see that every edition of our event gathers more and more representations. Crowd of this edition could enjoy by watching players from Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Denmark, Holland, Hungary, Ireland and of course Poland.

   Due to our tradition, we opened Championships on Friday with the Great Opening Ceremony, while all teams were presented to the audience, ballot to two elimination groups, but also there was an All Star Game played between European Homeless Representation (build of members of all 10 teams) and VIPs from Polish Pomeranian Region. This year it was: The President of City of Sopot Mr. Jacek Karnowski, Vice President of Gdańsk City Council Mr. Sylwester Pruś, Representative of Town Hall of Sopot Mr. Andrzej Kowalczys, The World Champion and The European Champion in Windsurfing Mr. Przemysław Miarczyński, Representative of Caritas Father Dariusz Leman and The President of Saint Brother Albert`s Aid Society in Gdańsk Mr. Wojciech Bystry. Pomeranian Stars loose against European Homeless 2:4. Beside All Star Game there was also many other attractions for the audience, who reacted spontaneously during all parts of the tournament.   

Second Day of the event was a Day of Elimination Games. All teams was split into two groups, which played simultaneously on two football courts at the same time. Thanks to that all spectators could watch all dynamic changes, that took place on the score board. At the end of the day scores in both groups were all known:  

Group A:                                                                            Group B:

1.       Lithuania                                                                    1. Russia

2.       Estonia                                                                       2. Ukraine

3.       Poland                                                                        3. Ireland

4.       Czech Republic                                                        4. Hungary

5.       Denmark                                                                   5. Holland

The third and the last day of Championships was a time of ultimate games for going into the finals and for medal places.  

At the beginning of it audience could be a witness of matches, that decided about last positions in the tournaments score board:

-          Holland won against the Denmark 9:1 and finished the tournament on the 9^th place

-          Hungary won against Czech Republic 11:3 and finished the tournament on the 7^th place

-          Poland after dramatic game and really tuff overtime, lost against Ireland in penalty kicks 6:4. Thanks to that Ireland finished the tournament on the 5^th place

After those games became time for the semifinals, where Lithuania won against Ukraine and qualified to the final match. The same result was achieved by the Russian team, who won in the semifinals against Estonia.

The last and the ultimate part of the tournament was a great final games for the top medals and European Champion title. After very tight game, Ukraine won against Estonia 3:1 and reached bronze. In last game of the event all we enjoy meeting, between two the same teams which fought for the Champion title last year. But this time, silver medalists of 2007 reverse their faith and reached price, which they couldn’t achieve in previous event. Russian team without any doubt defeated Lithuanians 5:1 and won European Champions Title for the second time in the history of the tournament.

The Final results of the event :

1. Russia
2. Lithuania
3. Ukraine
4. Estonia
5. Ireland
6. Poland
7. Hungary
8. Czech Republic
9. Holland
10. Denmark

 

 

Like in previous years organizers decide to give Fair Play Cup to one of the teams. This time this special award went to the Danish players, who deserve on it with their  great attitude. During their ultimate game for the 9^th place, they met Dutch team which struggled serious problem of injuries of  several players. They didn’t have enough players who could join the game. Due to the rules of the tournament they could be disqualified and 9^th place should go to the team from Denmark. But Danish team decided to allow Dutch guys replace their missing players with friends from Poland and Russia, so the game could be played. In effect, Denmark lost against Holland and reached last 10^th place in the tournament. All organizers and referees agreed, that such a extraordinary attitude has to be rewarded and because of that situation Denmark won Fair Play Cup.      

Beside medals and cups for the teams, organizers decide to reward few individual players. The title of the best striker went to sniper from Ukraine. The title of the best defender went to Irish guard, and the title of the best goal keeper went to Tomasz Figlarz from Poland, who sacrifice own health to defend polish gate, what gathered him huge popularity among the audience.   

4^th European Indoor Football Championships for the Homeless People, for the Cup of Polish Football Association finished with great success. As far, it was the biggest event since beginning of the tournament, with the largest count of players, fans and attention of the media. We would like to thank everybody who supported us during all preparations and helped us to arrange such a exciting sport event.

Thank you very much and see you next year!!!