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Report from
Grant Recipients - Ellon Meadows FC
We would like to thank Aberdeenshire Sports Council once again for the donation of £300. Our fund raising activities finally totalled over £8,000, and without your donation, and sponsorship from local businesses, it would not be possible to take teams to compete in tournaments in Europe.
The trip to Reggio Emelia was very successful, and we received a very warm welcome from our Italian hosts.
Myself and our team manager Terry Reid, were invited to a civic reception in the Town Hall, where we handed over an Aberdeenshire Sports Council Pennant, which will now hang in the Town Hall.
We combined the football tournament with a visit to Parma. In the morning, we visited the Parma Football Stadium. At the stadium, we met Gigi Buffon the current Italian goalkeeper, who happily signed autographs and posed for photographs with the boys.
In the afternoon, we visited the Parma Training Facilities. It is a new custom-built training complex located about eight miles out of Parma. This was an excellent opportunity for the boys to witness how Italian teams train and prepare for games, what they work on, and made them realise just how much effort World Class players put into their training. A real educational experience for us all.
After the training session, we were invited inside to meet the players, where more autographs and photographs were taken.
On the Friday, we had a training session in the morning, and in the afternoon we visited the Ferrari factory at Marinello.
The football tournament itself took place on the Saturday and Sunday (14th and 15th April). There were ten teams in our age group and 77 teams from all over Europe including 16 girls teams taking part. All the games were played at one location on 14 pitches. The tournament was very well organised and controlled.
In our first two games, we were drawn against two Dutch teams, and we drew our first game 2-2 and won the second game 3-0.
On the Sunday, we faced a very good Italian team who beat us 1-0, with the goal coming in the last minute. Although disappointed, we knew we had to win our final group game to qualify for the semi-final. The boys played very well, and beat a Danish team 4-0. In the semi-final we played against another Italian team, and lost 1-0. They were a very strong team. In the final, they beat a team from Spain 3-1.
Overall, the boys played very well and they were a credit to Aberdeenshire and Scotland.
Thank you once again for your support.
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