Blackburn Rovers Sports College secure third position in Sofia

Blackburn Rovers Sports College secure third position in Sofia

Blackburn Rovers Sports College finished third and took their place on the podium as they represented England in the Urban Zone Football Tournament in Sofia. 

A sterling effort from all eight members of the squad saw Blackburn Rovers return as medal winners from the Bulgarian capital in the five-a-side football element of a multi-sport and cultural festival that brought together youth groups from 15 European countries as part of the EU’s Erasmus programme.

The Sports College side were invited to attend as guests of the European Football for Development Network which has been of great benefit to the Community Trust in their first year of membership and hopefully they will have been seen to have done the network and our country proud as the only western European team in the football competition. Starting out on Tuesday with the round-robin action, Rovers made light work of their opposition in Group One, with convincing 13-2 and 9-1 victories against representative sides playing as ‘Romania’ and hosts ‘Bulgaria’ respectively.

That granted a safe passage into the second day’s action and a semi-final against Eli Academy representing Slovakia a specialist small-sided squad who play in Prešov’s five-a-side top Liga, Rovers were better value than the 2-2 half-time scoreline suggested, but struggled to come to terms with two referees alternating and sumultaneously undertaking the officiating, with contradictory application of the tournament rules throughout the half. Having failed to overcome the unusual combination of circumstances that continued into the second half, Rovers succumbed to a 3-2 defeat and missed out on the final, but made up for the disappointment by defeating another Romanian representative side 4-2 in the third-place play-off in the pleasant and sun-kissed surroundings of the Borisova Gardens.

After the Football Event, the trip was far from over as the calendar was packed with events such as arm wrestling, 3v3 basketball, yoga and karate on the schedule before they returned back to the UK. Having also had plenty of opportunity to take in the attractive sights of Sofia and even a trip to a Bulgarian second division fixture to see Septemvri Sofia extend their 100% winning record against Hebar on the first day of the trip, it has been an enlightening and memorable visit to eastern Europe for all involved.

The Community Trust’s media officer, Matt Sillitoe concluded by saying “All the lads have been a credit to the club in what has been a very interesting and unusual opportunity to head somewhere that most of the squad would never have imagined visiting It’s a very pleasant city to explore and the hosts have been helpful in guiding our way around the city. The event has been played in a great atmosphere and the quality of football we played was very enjoyable to watch. We’d like to say a big thank you to the EFDN for inviting us and we hope that there will be further opportunities for visits like this again in the future, because it’s such an amazing life experience for all involved.”