On Friday 8 June 2007, Primary Schools from various School Sport Partnerships throughout Dorset participated in the Under 11 Girls WORLD CUP China Festival that was staged at the Blandford School, North of the County.
The Schools were selected from the Partnership Development Managers who had run numerous local Competitions and trials throughout the School year.
The Festival commenced with an opening ceremony with all Schools involved dressed in their Country Colours and very proudly holding their home made flags; as the teams walked round the pitches they eventually made it into the Arena for the interactive warm up which was delivered in the Wuhan and Chegdu Stadiums!
On the day, 15 young leaders were on hand from the Blandford School all of which had recently attended the FA Junior Football Organisers Course and were heavily involved in the organisation of the day by refereeing, car parking, running a ‘keepy up’ competition and general administration.
The format of the Competition was split into two parts; Group and Knockout stages. The Group stage consisted of four groups of four with the top two from each group going forward to the Cup Competition and the third and fourth place in each Group going forward into the Shield Competition.
In the Knockout stages it was Ghana who walked away with the Shield trophy with a one nil win against Australia and in the Cup Competition Argentina resulted in a two nil win against Norway.
England took an early exit in the Competition, however their flag won the award for creativity as they were presented for the best flag in the Closing Ceremony.
Head’s of PE from Schools/Countries commented the following:
“The festival was first class and themed with the Ladies World Cup was a bonus!”
“Great venue, great organisation, kids really enjoyed the day. Parents comments all extremely positive – Thank you very much for organising it.”
“Can we come next year?!”
“Brilliant – we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and would love to do it again!
Dorset FA would like to express their thanks to all who were involved in the day and contributed to the success of the event and the celebration of the National Women’s Team reaching the World Cup Finals in September this year.
Details of the England Women’s Team Fixtures are as follows:
11 September, kick off 1pm - Shanghai
JAPAN v ENGLAND
14 September, kick off 1pm – Shanghai
ENGLAND v GERMANY
18 September, kick off 10am – Chengdu - 10am
ENGLAND v ARGENTINA