The opening day of the festival on Tuesday saw the young participants meet in the Nuremberg Youth Hostel to take part in preparatory workshops and draw up the FAIR PLAY rules for the tournament. The street football tournament then kicked off the following day on Wednesday at Nuremberg’s Corn Market and the games were played in accordance with the rules drawn up together the day before. The first ball at the opening of the tournament was kicked off by Marco Bode, a member of the German Youth Football Association’s board of trustees. In the afternoon, the patron of the tournament greeted and presented medals to the teams taking part. The winning teams and the fairest teams were awarded by Gül Keskinler und Marco Bode on the pitch of the Franken stadium before the kick-off of the Germany-Belgium international friendly. Afterwards all participants enjoyed watching the Germany team win their first match since the EURO 2008 final.

16 COMPETING TEAMS PLAY FAIR

The street football played in Nuremberg was unique due to the fact it was played in mixed 5-aside teams and that the rules were decided on by the players themselves. Not only goals but also FAIR PLAY points counted towards the match results. There were no referees and any conflicts had to be resolved in dialogue between the players. After the game, all players would come together to take part in a discussion to decide the awarding of the FAIR PLAY points.

Sixteen teams in two different age groups took part in the tournament. They came from eight different Network Member Organisations as well as a guest team from South Africa, they included Sportgarten Bremen, Rheinflanke (Köln kickt) Köln, Straßenfußball Hamburg (Hamburger Sportjugend / Nestwerk e.V.), Straßenfußball Brandenburg (Brandenburgische Sportjugend), KICKFAIR Baden-Württemberg, Dynamo Windrad Kassel, Bunt kickt gut München, klickkicker.de Berlin and the guest team of the streetfootballworld network Whizzkids United from Durban in South Africa.

THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WINNER IN FAIR PLAY GAMES

The tournament champions were in the under15s category was klickkicker.de (Berlin) and buntkicktgut (München) in the 15 and Overs category. Due to the special FAIR PLAY rules there were two other winning teams alongside the traditional tournament champions, the FAIR PLAY winners were Brandenburgische Sportjugend in the under15s category and Sportgarten Bremen in the 15 and Overs category.

Results table for the Under15s category:
1st Place klickkicker.de.
2nd Place buntkicktgut
3rd Place KICKFAIR
4th Place köln kickt
5th Place Sportgarten Bremen
6th Place Hamburger Sportjugend
7th Place WhizzKids United
8th Place Brandenburgische Sportjugend

Results table for the 15 and Overs category:
1st Place buntkicktgut
2nd Place Dynamo Windrad
3rd Place Sportgarten Bremen
4th Place Brandenburgische Sportjugend
5th Place Hamburger Sportjugend
6th Place köln kickt
7th Place KICKFAIR
8th Place klickkicker.de

The member organisations of the German national Network for Street Football agreed at the festival to hold further events in the future, for example the ‘Network Forum’ (3rd–4th December in Potsdam) or the 2nd Street Football Network Festival 2009.

The festival was supported by the German Football Association’s social engagement programme. The Street Football Network is co-ordinated by streetfootballworld in co-operation with KICKFAIR and the German Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens,Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) as well as the German Youth Football Association. More information can be found at www.netzwerk-strassenfussball.org.

Translated into English by Erica Callery.