Successful First Edition of Heracles Neighbourhood Tournament

Successful First Edition of Heracles Neighbourhood Tournament

Throughout the last couple of weeks, the first edition of the Heracles Neighbourhood Tournament took place. The Heracles Foundation implemented this initiative with the municipality of Almelo, Sportbedrijf Almelo and Heracles Almelo. Through the tournament, the organisations wanted to bring together different neighbourhoods in the municipality of Almelo and encourage them to play sports.

All residents aged 16+ could sign up for the Neighbourhood Tournament for free. Preliminary rounds took place over two evenings. The winners of the preliminary rounds competed on the final day at Erve Asito. The participating teams all represented one neighbourhood of the municipality of Almelo. The winning team won a spending budget towards a beneficial social initiative in their neighbourhood.

Meeting at the Preliminaries

On Wednesday 28 June, the first preliminary round was scheduled. The preliminary rounds were held at the Luctor et Emergo sports fields. Ten teams, spread over two pools, had the honour of kicking off the first edition of the Heracles Neighbourhood Tournament with the first preliminary round. It was a great evening!

Besides watching the matches, there was plenty to do for the spectators, including a bouncy castle and a panna cage. In addition, the canteen was of course open, where the teams could also look forward to their next match together.

The following day, Thursday 29 July, AVC Heracles’ sports park was the venue. Here, a total of nine teams participated, this time spread over three pools of three teams, each of which played against each other several times. Also during these preliminary rounds, there was plenty of competition for a place in the finals and there were plenty of activities for young and old people.

The participating teams were quite diverse. A total of 13 different neighbourhoods from the municipality of Almelo participated. The players of the teams were also diverse, creating a nice gathering of different cultures and backgrounds. The ten teams that made it to the finals at Erve Asito were enthusiastic.

Exciting Finals

On Wednesday 5 July, around 7pm, the finalists gathered at Erve Asito. Nico-Jan Hoogma, technical director of Heracles Almelo, opened the evening and welcomed all teams and spectators. Again, two pools were played, after which the finals were played in knock-out matches.

After an interesting pool phase, Stichting Arjan competed against Aadorp FC for 3rd place. Aadorp FC won the duel and received a spending budget of €250 euros. The grand final was between Real Pro Master and Yerevan. It became a nerve-wracking final that Real Pro Master eventually managed to win on penalties. Besides the unique winner’s medal, the winners were presented with a cheque worth €750 euros from the hands of Jan-Martin van Rees, alderman for sport, which they may spend on a social initiative for their neighbourhood, Haghoek. The tournament’s runner-up, Yerevan, received a cheque worth €500 to spend on the Almelo neighbourhood of Windmolenbroek.

The district directors of Almelo municipality are now in talks with the teams to implement the spending target.

All in all, it was a fantastic project. Heracles Almelo and partners, thank all participants for playing along as well as for making their facilities available.