The GEMS Football Cup, part of the UAE’s biggest school sports series, has enjoyed its best season yet.
The Football Cup took place over five days in November 2018 across three state-of-the-art venues. The boys, totaling 990 players, competed at GEMS Wellington Academy — Al Khail (WEK) while the girls, at 550 players, competed at GEMS Wellington Academy — Silicon Oasis (WSO). The U8 age category competed at GEMS Heritage Indian School.
The buzz around the football tournament was huge and created the perfect atmosphere as the boys’ and girls’ football teams from schools across the GEMS Education network battled to win the coveted trophies in the U8, U10, U12, U14 and U16 age categories.
Conducted under the umbrella of the GEMS Sports Series, the GEMS Football Cup aims to raise the bar on football excellence across GEMS schools as the students become the next generation of elite male and female footballers. Participants increased from 950 to 1,540 this season, with 33 GEMS schools and 152 teams competing for top honours.
In total there were over 300 matches played over the five days, in what has now become firmly established as the premier youth football tournament in the school sports calendar.
The knockout stages provided all the typical drama of the beautiful game with several games decided by last-minute goals or nail-biting penalty shoot-outs. The event saw new champions across age groups and schools being crowned which speaks volumes about the development of youth football across GEMS schools from all corners of the UAE. The GEMS Football Cup promised some thrilling action with goals by the dozen and football at its zenith.
A good spread of schools received trophies during the cup and there were notable achievements throughout the tournament. Boys from WEK won the U10 category and U16 category, WSO won the U8 category, Our Own English High School — Fujairah (OOF) won the U12 category, and GEMS Founders School — Al Barsha (GFS) won the U14 category.
The girls from WSO, Jumeirah Primary School, GEMS FirstPoint School — The Villa, GEMS Wellington International School, and GEMS Metropole School Motor City achieved champions status by winning the U8, U10, U12, U14 and U16 Girls trophy respectively.
To view the individual MVPs and tournament results, visit http://www.GEMSSportsSeries.com or Follow the GEMS Sports Series on Facebook to view content from the GEMS Football Cup.