As former World Cup champs England, France and Italy jetted back from the World Cup opening up the debate over goal-line technology and the poor standard of refereeing that has been witnessed in South Africa, some possible footballing stars of the future have being showing an appreciative audience just what they can do with a ball too! On Wednesday June 23, twelve hundred youth footballers made their presence will and truly known at Torrevieja’s new Sports City. The occasion was the first Torrevieja Cup, an under eighteen tournament which attracted teams from as far away as Madrid, Valencia, Lorca and Cartagena.
Wednesday’s opening ceremony also doubled as the inauguration ceremony for the opening of the newest football field. The honours were performed by Mayor Pedro Hernandez Mateo, Sports Councillor Daniel Plaza and Joaquin Garcia Paredes ‘Nito’, whom the campo is named after, Joaquin is well respected locally for scouting local talent and helping to put them on the first steps on the road as professional footballers.
As a first endeavour the tournament was a success for the organisers Fourgest Sports & Events S.L. Local heads were held high by CF Torrevieja and Sheffield United who gave as good as they got from stiff competition from the visiting top teams. Some of the younger teams from the likes of Nuevo Mejorada from Madrid were no competition for their counterparts but all the parents and players came with the attitude to just enjoy their weekend and although they may have lost, they had cheers and smiles all round and were a joy to have in the competition.
As expected, the teams from Elche, Madrid, Valencia and Cartagena proved strong opposition for the locals but Torrevieja did well and next year’s Tournament will be even bigger and better. Prices for T-shirts, memorabilia, food and beverages were very competitive, so no complaints there and the games all started more or less on time.
For 2011, there are a number of lessons to be learnt. For example, in the Benjamin category, we had one group of Four and another of Six, which made the second group a much harder group to qualify from and something that the organisers should have simply adapted to. This also meant that one team had to play one game immediately after another, which they closely lost to the eventual group winners. Thus group B teams played three games on their opening day, while the winners of the other group only played three games in total over two days, so very poor organising from Fourgest on this account! In general the refereeing needs to be taken up to a higher level, but then again, it was probably no worse than that seen in the third division when FC Torrevieja are playing nor possibly as bad as some of the decisions witnessed in this year’s World Cup! Another area of frustration for teams was the lack of a warm up area while the adjacent grass pitch lay empty and could easily have been used for this purpose!
The Torrevieja Cup, small quibbles aside, was a resounding success and will be looked forward to by many for 2011. It should not be difficult to raise the standards on all levels in terms of organising, the teams invited, hopefully more Torrevieja hotels and accommodation on offer and more advance information about the competition in the press and web sites, which Fourgest also need to pay much more attention to! No World or European Cups in 2011 so the Torrevieja Cup will have the opportunity to take centre stage in what is sure to become a very attractive youth football event.
