Revived Aberdeen summer kids’ football tournament Champion Street now has its 2025 dates, venues and competition formats in place – with “a lot of interest” and a deluge of team entries flooding in.
The Press and Journal recently revealed – on the back of our nostalgic Champion Street picture galleries – one Aberdeen football coach’s plan to bring back the beloved event, which ran from 1973 to 2008.
Daniel Kindness’ bid to restore Champion Street to the city’s sporting calendar – and as soon as this summer – now looks set to pay off, with the project picking up rapid momentum and a groundswell of support on social media.
The Champion Street 2025 Facebook page is now up to more than 1,500 followers, with a quickly-formed six-person committee on course to make the tournament’s comeback a reality.
Here’s what we know:
Dates/location
Champion Street 2025 is set to kick-off on July 14, and will run for around a month before a finals day, which will be held on the weekend of August 9/10.
While the previous iterations of Champion Street have been held across a wide range of city venues, including Seaton, Hazlehead, Sheddocksley, and Aberdeen Lads Club, the bulk of the 2025 matches will take place at Kincorth Field/Bobby Douglas Park, with Kindness’ involvement in both Kincorth Amateurs and Kincorth Emirates Youth Football Club helping pave the way to securing the site.
Meanwhile, the teams who battle their way through to the August finals weekend will have the chance to go for silverware at Crombie Park, the home of junior side Culter FC – an arrangement which stemmed from a chance meeting between Kindness and Culter gaffer Lee Youngson.
Competition format – with 30 teams entered already
There will be three separate primary age-group tournaments which form Champion Street 2025.
Kindness explained: “We’ve dissected the sections a wee bit.
“We’ve made it primary 6/7s together at nine-a-sides, then primary 3/4/5s together at seven-a-sides, and then a mini tournament for primary 1s and 2s, which is at five-a-sides – just to try to give everyone a taster of what it’s about.
“There’s more than 30 teams in already across the three sections.”
Entries
Champion Street 2025 is free for teams to enter, with both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire sides welcome.
Kindness added: “We’ve actually included Shire teams. I’ve got a good relationship with Peterhead.”
Registration closes on April 26, via the form available on the Champion Street 2025 FB page (to be sent to championstreetreturn@gmail.com).
Organisers are determined – as has been Champion Street tradition – teams from within the city will be formed from geographical areas based on where players live – e.g. Kincorth, Torry, Bridge of Don etc.
Players from the smaller towns/villages in Aberdeenshire, some which don’t have primary schools, will, however, be allowed to join up with teams from larger towns/villages.
Club names, as well as club kits, cannot be used.
Teams must also have at least two coaches at their matches.
For players who are looking for a team to join (under the area rules), or for coaches looking to get involved with a team, there is a “player and coach team finder” post on the Champion Street 2025 FB page.
Sponsorship/volunteers
On the funding front, there has been an explosion of interest in the returning tournament, with Kindness saying: “There’s been a lot of folk asking and offering sponsorship and stuff like that.
“I didn’t want to go back to them straight away before we knew venues and numbers of teams, but well more than 20 companies have been in touch and said they’d like to sponsor.
“We were working out what we need – a list of equipment we’ll need, balls, trophies… stuff like that.”
With categories of sponsorship now established, interested firms are asked to message organisers via FB.
The organisers have also created a GoFundMe page for those keen to support Champion Street 2025’s running costs through smaller donations – with a £5,000 target.
It has already raised more than £1,000, and can be found here.
The many people who have said they are interested in volunteering during Champion Street 2025 are asked to be patient, with Kindness adding: “The committee is just six of us, but the amount of folk who have messaged wanting to help is just colossal.
“I’ve just said to them: ‘Once we’ve got the finer details sorted out, we will need helpers, because it’s going to be a fair thing to set up’ – we’ll need pitches lined, grass cut, crowd barriers up and whatever else, so it’ll be a fair operation.”
Take a look through our Champion Street Aberdeen picture galleries…
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