Norfolkline Football 2007
While it was not quite the world cup, Norfolkline's annual football tournament brought together teams from across Europe to battle it out for the coveted title of 2007 champions in The Hague (Netherlands) on Saturday June 9th.
On a day where it always threatened to rain, but never did, playing conditions on the four all weather pitches available for the competition were almost perfect, and the open 7-a-side format led to fast & fun play for all.
The format of the competion pitted 2 groups of 8 teams against each other in a round-robin format to decide the which places in the overall standings the teams played for in the knock-out stages.
Pool A was comprised of:
- Intermodal/Scandinavia
- Birkenhead
- Dublin
- Managers
- MISE
- Intermodal UK
- Larkhall
- Dover
Pool B was comprised of:
- Scheveningen
- Felixstowe
- Belfast
- Luebeck/Basel/Helsingborg
- Immingham
- Intermodal Italy
- Heysham
- Taulov/Gothenburg
The round-robin games were played in the morning and early afternoon, with the winner takes all knock-out stages in the mid afternoon.
As in all competitons there had to be a winner, and this year's top three teams were all from the UK:
- The Birkenhead Team
- The Immingham Team
- The Dover Team
In addition the following prizes were awarded by the organising committee
- The best sporting team prize was received by the team comprising Basel, Lubeck and Helsingborg
- The best male goal keeper was Michael van Koert of Scheveningen
- The best female goal keeper was Vigdis Fjukmoen of Oslo
In keeping with the tradition of the competition next year's event will be hosted and organised by Birkenhead. Precompetition training is yet to be organised in most locations, but lets hope 2008's event will be as thrilling and enjoyable as that of 2007.