22.02.13
The Mechanical Engineering Charity 5-a-side Football Tournament took place last Saturday at Weetwood with great success. The tournament was one of the largest of its kind to take place at the University of Leeds and featured 24 teams and over 150 players.
The event was organised in aid of the Greek charity Desmos, which translates as ‘bond’. The organisation was set up in November 2011 in the aftermath of the Greek economic crisis and it is a non-profit foundation. Their mission is to decide how to best manage and utilize surplus products and services from companies and individuals in order to help cover carefully documented needs of social welfare providers and non-profit organizations.
Desmos communicates continuously with organizations, institutions and social welfare providers in order to accurately document their needs on an emergency, as well as on a more long-term basis. By placing emphasis on the documentation of longterm needs, Desmos effectively helps high-risk groups at any moment, but also helps the organizations and social welfare agencies manage their resources more efficiently.
The tournament itself was a lively and good-natured occasion. Rigorously organised and officiated by a team of over 20 volunteers and Mech Eng Soc committee members, the matches lasted 9 minutes a half giving time for some entertaining matches.
Six Pack, featuring Desmos’ very own Kyriakos Kyriakopoulos, took part in a closely-fought opening match against the eventual winners Team Bots that they won 5-3.
Meanwhile, the Al Diwani Brothers showed off their skills in an impressive 5-2 victory over Pathetic Athletic, although the comically-named side gave a good account of themselves with two well-worked goals.
The prize for the best kit had to go to Vinegar Strokes, whose Will Smith t-shirts added some comic relief to the afternoon. VFL Wermsburgsteinm also looked classy in their matching white and red Peru strips.
Team Bots won the tournament, defeating Clam Smashers in the Final while The Logarithms finished in an admirable third place. Gianfranco Amoroso of ABCDE FC won the Golden Boot, scoring 12 goals.
In total over £600 was raised and Desmos would like to thank everyone who bought t-shirts, football tickets and contributed towards the event which ran very smoothly.
Speaking after the event Kyriakopoulos said, “I would like to thank all the volunteers, the players and the spectators that participated in our event in aid of DESMOS. The money raised will go to DESMOS and we will use it in order to provide heating to public schools in Greece that cannot afford the heating costs. We are looking forward for the next charity event of DESMOS in the United Kingdom and why not in cooperation with the MechEng society, which was a pleasure working with them. A big thank you on behalf of DESMOS and the people in Greece.”
Alex Koltsidopoulos, a Greek Volunteer and the tournament’s official photographer, was also delighted with how well the tournament went. He said, “As a volunteer all these days, I had the chance to see how the tournament was evolving and finally as this tournament is in progress, I feel everyone’s hard being rewarded. Furthermore, we are really happy that we have volunteers and players from all over the world, who want to help and support Greece, by taking part in this charity football tournament.”
Overall, it was a thoroughly positive day which saw the University and the charity co-operating with real success. President of the MechEng Society, Rory Ryan told Leeds Student, “The day was great fun and a big success. I hope that this will be the first of many charity football tournaments organised by the Mech Eng Society and that as we continue to rapidly grow there will be other exciting events like this to look forward to.”
Hugo Greenhalgh – Words
Alex Koltsidopoulos – Photos