RAF Festival of Football 2016

RAF Festival of Football

RAF FA Festival of Football 2017

The RAF FA Festival of Football in Manchester on Wednesday 4th October was a huge success with 32 teams from units across the country entering the competition to fight it out for the trophies.

As is usual with such events, 3 teams had to withdraw which saw 29 teams on the day. The event organisation was exemplary and was down to the fabulous efforts of John Duff, the RAF FA Football Development Officer. On the day John was ably assisted by Sqn Ldr Maddie Smith and Flt Lt Phil Wilmot of the RAF FA Sponsorship team and Wg Cdr Neil Hope, the FA Council member for the RAF FA.

Photographs were taken by Mr Steve Lympany who kindly gave up a day off to assist the team. As always there was fantastic support from the RAF Referees who officiated superbly. It was pleasing to see some of the RAF FA Sponsors at the event. The RAF Benevolent Fund are the main sponsors of the Tournament and were present throughout the day fundraising in the form of Jennifer Price.

 

The Plate The Plate final was contested by Cosford ‘B’ and Boulmer. Cosford progressed to the final after a penalties victory over their ‘A’ team, another penalties victory against Spadeadam and then beating Digby. Boulmer showed their potency in front of goal, after getting a bye in the first match, they won 3- 0 against Benson ‘A’ then beat Brize Norton 3-0. This free-scoring ability saw them come out clear victors after a 6-0 demolition of Cosford ‘B’ in the final.

The Cup The top 16 teams (1st and 2nd places from the leagues and the 4 best other teams) moved into the cup knock out stages, with the remaining 13 teams left to fight for the plate. This meant that there was still plenty of football to be played.

Coningsby ‘A’ dispatched Brize Norton ‘A’ with a 6-0 victory and then beat their own ‘B’ Team 2-1 to move to the Cup semi-final.  Leonardo would be their opposition after beating Linton-on-Ouse 5-0 and then Waddington Cat 3-1.

In the other half of the draw things were far tighter with Wittering ‘A’ progressing to the semi-final following a 1-0 win over Marham and then a penalties victory over Waddington ‘B’ after drawing 1-1. They would play Waddington ‘A’ who eased past Swanwick 2-0 then then beat Lossiemouth 3-0.

In the semi-finals, Wittering beat Waddington ‘A’ and Leonardo beat Coningsby to secure the chance of glory.  After a close final, the sponsor’s team – Leonardo came out victors with a 2-1 victory. 

RAF Festival of Football 2017 report can be found here 

RAF Festival of Football 2017 (1)
Current champions - leonardo (Sponsors team)

Festival of Football 

The next Festival of Football will be held at the start of the 18/19 season.

 More details to follow.

Tiger the bear and trophies
In recognition of the support that RAF Football provides to the RAF Community, the RAF Benevolent Fund has kindly increased its support to include the RAF Festival of Football (the largest Service sporting event in the UK)
RAF Benevolent fund
Let's make football safe, not sorry
Safeguarding
Reporting Concerns

It'S EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY 

If you feel that an adult connected to your league or club (e.g. a referee, coach or a volunteer) is mistreating someone under the age of 18, there are various confidential ways you can report this.

By ‘mistreating’, we mean behaving towards under-18s in a physical or verbal way you believe is threatening or makes the young person feel scared or bad.

Find out more and watch a short film The FA has produced explaining how to report your concerns. Of course, everything is completely confidential.