On August 29th it was clear which teams were going to face each other in this year’s UEFA Champions League (Football) and it was also clear that The AEGEEan had joined forces with the Sports Working Group (SWG) to gather AEGEEans interested in football to follow the prestigious tournament.
The idea was brought by The AEGEEan’s Network editor Marije Arentze already in the spring, after the success of the Eurovision Facebook group. “Yesterday I was watching the Champions League final, and I was thinking that UEFA is something similar to Eurovision: it unites people from all over the continent by cheering for their own ideals. Eurovision by means of music and UEFA by means of football,” was the comment by Marije that started it all back in May.
During the summer the idea was, as many other things in AEGEE, left behind not only because of exhausting exams for the students of the Network but also because that is the time of the year when many of the AEGEE members flee to beaches and other fun activities.
Then, a few weeks ago, the idea was again picked up both in The AEGEEan, as well as in the Sports Working Group (SWG). From the beginning, the idea was to bring the two groups closer. In the end, developed both by Sports Working Group members as well as by members of The AEGEEan – AEGEE’s Online Magazine it is now possible to find a Facebook group of AEGEE members interested in following Champions League together.
This group has a lot of potential since football is a popular sport, and it can lead the SWG to members across the Network interested in sports. Champions League also brings on many different topics such as racism in football or the economy of the teams involved, which can possibly be the focus of the talks between the matches. An even greater success the group can achieve, is leading to events against homophobia and racism which have been some of the main causes in the SWG.
Which team will be the winner of the different matches? Who will be the football player with the most goals? Who will bring the trophy home after the final in Lisbon next year? All these are questions that AEGEE members can try to answer and round by round it will be interesting to see which people, and from where in the Network, know most about the sport. In the end, as in Champions League there will be a winner, not with a trophy, but indeed with a prize. For now the main aim is to have fun and bring the people of the Network closer to each other.
Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København