Vincenzo Calandrelli, Stefano d’Amato and Riccardo Zampedri, three of our officials, were selected to be part of the China’s second-ever intercollegiate Arena-style football tournament.
The championship took place in the city of Wuhan, a “small” town in the heart of China with only 10 million people.
The games have been played from Wednesday 3rd to Saturday 7th November in the Guanggu Arena, all the equipment – the turf, the sideline barriers and the big nets with the goal post behind the end line – have been set up in less than one day.
There were six teams:
- BIRDS Wuhan
- FLAMES Shandong
- NIRVANA Hebei
- PIRATES Tianjin
- TIGERS Shenyang
- WOLVES Xi’an
The teams had different abilities, but everyone has shown a satisfactory and thrilling football.
The home team, Wuhan, won the tournament: at halftime, they were trailing 18 to 6, but in the second half they were able to bet the Flames Shandong with one safety and 4 TDs scored.
Very important for the Wuhan Birds was the crowd: more the 4000 spectators really enjoyed the game and were able to appreciate the game (new for them), the halftime show and the gadgets – football and T-shirt – thrown into the stands by the staff.
Officiating Arena football is different from what we usually do “any given Sunday” in Italy, due to some particular restrictions for offense and defense formations, the presence of the sideline barriers, the smaller field and the players very close to the officials. It’s also very exciting when a pass or a kick hits the nets: expect the unexpected!!!
But in this Chinese adventure our Italians were also tutors for the local officials, most of them students for the colleges or teachers, whom have had the opportunity, for their first time, to wear the striped uniform for one or more quarters. The other two “teachers” were Mr. Carl Paganelli, our honorary president, dedicated to the referees, and Mrs. Terri Valenti, Linejudge on the field, but Referee at our last Italian Bowl in July: their dedication in teaching was incredible as usual and we will never stop to thank them.
The Chinese officials from the first moment demonstrated to be very willing to learn, took advantage of every single minute asking questions and following the tips: at the end of the tournament, they were really improved!
Our colleagues were appreciated by Carl and the organization (all the guys involved did an outstanding job in logistics and translating) and had also some time for some tourism, for relaxing in the facilities of the beautiful hotels where they stayed and for enjoying the “staff group”, composed by people from Italy, China, USA and Australia!
What about the future? 2016 should be an important year for the project, upgrading from the “college status” to a “professional status”, with USA players involved, and many games scheduled in 7 weekends all around the major Chinese cities,
Our wish is to keep working seriously on this great opportunity we were given and we all hope many other AIAFA officials could have in the future the possibility to try such a unique adventure.
