A week of GREAT football
On the week of 2 of June, the UK and Brazil celebrated their partnership through sports
Football team with Sport is GREAT flag
England and Brazil’s nationals football teams competed in a Friendly match in Rio de Janeiro, for the reopening of the Maracana. GREAT activity around the friendly reached millions, achieving 56 service deliveries and highlighting the UKTI’s Springboard to Success website. More than 66,000 spectators watched Brazil and England draw 2-2 with Brazil at Maracanã. We invited business stakeholders to join staff and attend the event, making It a GREAT experience!
There were four activities around the Friendly:
Business Reception at Fluminense FC
We engaged UK and Brazilian business contacts from the Oil/Gas, Marine, and Sports at our pre-match networking event at Fluminense Football Club. We also launched a brochure on sports ground safety, profiling 26 UK companies with expertise in this area.
Bola para Frente: football friendship
England players Joe Hart, Theo Walcott, Jermain Defoe, Jack Rodwell, along with coach Roy Hodgson were received by former Brazilian player Bebeto at Bola Pra Frente institution, an NGO that provides football classes for kids from Deodoro. Comic Relief announced a partnership with the institute during the event.
Army Volunteers in Rio
British Army football teams (male and female) visited the favela Morro dos Prazeres, with coordination of British Council and Premier Skills project. Premier Skills is a partnership between the British Council and the Premier League which uses football as a tool to engage with and develop the skills of young people.
Musical Football Scores in Brazil
Together with UKTI trade mission to Sao Paulo, young British entrepreneur and founding Director Adam Place introduced his latest AlphaSphere beat box ball into Brazil. Designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK, the Alpha-Sphere may look like a football, but we can’t kick it!.
See more photos of the match and events in our Flickr Channel and read the Ambassador’s blog on the weekend.