Festival of Football
Posted by New Zealand - 16/11/2008
Football is alive in Wellington, and as part of Wellington City Council’s Festival of Football for the FIFA under 17 Women’s World Cup, Wellingtonians had the opportunity to support Street Football Aotearoa through a fundraising street football competition and film screening.
Last Friday over 200 people turned out to the Civic Square in the centre of the city - transformed into a pitch for the public to play Futsal and be part of the football fever spreading over Wellington. Unfortunately just before the scheduled kick off the Street Football competition a thunder storm saw the crowd disappear and had us all running for cover.
With no sign of the rain stopping we had a quick change of venue and heading across to Shed One on the wharf for an indoor tournament. Players from Wellington’s Street Football Project took on Craig Ireson’s City Council team, Wellington Phoenix Yellow Fever Supporters Club, and a Celebrity team including former All-Blacks Norm Hewitt and Christian Cullen, Comedian and TV personality Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and All White and local team Wellington player Raffaele De Gregorio. A closely fought final saw the Celebrity Team come out winners on the day but the Wellington street football players must be commended for fair play, enthusiasm and some really good passing. A special mention to Willie for scoring a hat-trick! The afternoon of football was followed by a showing of the award-winning film 'Kicking It' in the Town Hall - raising the profile of the HWC in New Zealand and helping to support the work of the trust.
A big thank you to Wellington City Council and Craig Ireson for involving us the festival, to Kate, Tony from Sportzone, the Futsal crowd and Richard for help with equipment and running the event and of course to all the players and supporters who turned out despite the dreadful weather to make the day a success.
