THE World Cup came to Waveney last week when Lowestoft South Beach hosted its first Community World Cup on Saturday, which attracted teams from a variety of communities across the district.
THE World Cup came to Waveney last week when Lowestoft South Beach hosted its first Community World Cup on Saturday, which attracted teams from a variety of communities across the district.
With locality funding
from Suffolk county councillors Deanna Law and Kathy Gosling, and the donation of brand new goals from Harrod UK, Waveney District Council was able to host a successful five-a-side beach soccer tournament and family fun day.
Further partnership work with Waveney Youth Football Club, Tesco who donated bottled water to all players and volunteers, Suffolk police, Suffolk Football Association and web design and advertising company Emagma, meant local communities could come together for the tournament.
The group stages of the tournament involved teams representing Waveney's Portuguese, African, Indian and Bangladesh communities, with teams from Waveney District Council and Suffolk police also taking part.
Two nail-biting semi-finals followed, with Waveney District Council teams Holland and Spain going head to head.
Sudden death penalties proved the only way to decide that Spain would face a very strong Portuguese team in the final, who narrowly beat a talented South African side in the second semi-final.
The final itself certainly did not disappoint, with the tournament continuing to be played in good spirits. It was Portugal who came out on top and were able to lift the Waveney Community World Cup with a well deserved 2-1 victory over Spain - the Water Lane Leisure Centre team from Waveney District Council.
Kevin Batty and PCSO Norman Drew from Lowestoft police refereed the matches throughout the day.
Stuart Halsey, community development officer at Waveney District Council, said: 'The event was a great success and I was pleased to see the camaraderie between the teams throughout the day.
'It just shows the benefits of using sport to bring people from all backgrounds together and address issues around community cohesion.'
The trophy was presented by Deanna Law, Kathy Gosling and Mark Smith, design manager of Harrod UK.
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