The world shrinks for this cup

• Source: Global Times
• [17:10 June 30 2010]
• Comments

A player representing Brazil heads a ball at the Mini-World Cup. Photo: Chris Chagnon

By Chris Chagnon

The news that Spain had won the World Cup wouldn't surprise too many but the fact that the 1-0 win involved South Africa might turn some heads … if it had been played at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa instead of the Dulwich College football pitch in Jinqiao, Pudong New Area. But this was the game that capped off Shanghai's second Mini-World Cup.

The Mini-World Cup is the creation of the Shanghai Premier League (SPL), a local nine-team football league founded in 2001 and it was staged last Sunday featuring a day of fast-paced, seven-a-side, half-field football.

"We don't normally put together an end of season tournament but we like to put this together because of the interna-tional nature of the city and league. In most cities around the world you don't find so many different nationalities mixing together. There are people from over 20 different countries out there on the field. Our first reason for putting it together is because we all love football and our second reason is to give everyone a chance to mix together and have a good time," said Freek Boelen, from Holland, who has been SPL President for the past four years. "As far as the selection of teams goes, it came down to first come first served. Almost all the teams are mixed as far as nationalities go."

Thus teams like the Flamencos, a predominantly Spanish–Dutch team, split into a Spanish and a Mexican team. The Japanese team, the Super 48, played as Japan and the Lions, a divergent mixture, played as South Africa because their colors were similar.

Both the league and the Mini-World Cup receive great support from Goldenbridge, the local government property development company. Originally, Goldenbridge had wanted to have a much larger event, similar to 2006 when there was a good deal of pageantry and side events which attracted national media attention. Unfortunately, because of the World Expo, they were forced to greatly scale back plans. "Originally we had planned on having 16 teams instead of 12, as well as a variety of stage shows, carnival games, and an opening and closing ceremony. Really, the tournament was just going to be one part of it. However, the city government has curtailed large events because of security concerns. Expo security takes so many resources, the city doesn't have enough people to cover other large events at the same time," Boelen said.