Saturday, May 27, at the Sports Base of the “Rapid” Football School in Bucharest, approximately 100 children met in a football tournament organized to celebrate the UEFA Under 21 Championship, which Romania is hosting this summer alongside Georgia.
The event provided the opportunity for many of the participating children to play football for the first time. Some of them come from underprivileged backgrounds, and their participation was made possible through the collaboration with the Casa Ioana Association, while the rest came from Bucharest football schools and private schools from the Capital.
Each of the ten teams registered for the tournament chose a representative country, and at the end the top four received diplomas and medals. The representative of Spain was the one who prevailed in the final, after penalty kicks.
The children thus had the opportunity to play in a competitive format that would otherwise not have been accessible to them and to promote the passion for football, friendship and fair play. The tournament was organized with the support of the British Football School, the Casa Ioana Association and the Rapid Club, on the occasion of the U21 European Championship this summer.
Our country will host 15 matches of the final tournament: Group B matches will be played in Bucharest, which includes Romania, Spain, Ukraine and Croatia, plus a match from the quarterfinals and a semifinal. And in Cluj-Napoca, the matches of Group D will be held in which France, Italy, Norway and Switzerland will face each other, and then a quarter-final.
The games will take place at Steaua and Rapid-Giulesti stadiums in Bucharest and at Cluj Arena and Dr. Constantin Rădulescu in Cluj-Napoca. The schedule of matches and other details about the competition can be found at https://www.frf.ro/under21/.
