A LANDMARK FUTSAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN GREENLAND

The 2017 edition of Greenland's national Futsal championship has been held in the western town of Maniitsoq over the weekend, and there is a new name on the trophy. One of Greenland's best outdoor teams of recent years, Nagdlúnguak-48, won their first-ever Futsal championship on 9 April when they defeated B-67 in a pulsating final by 5 goals to 3. It was also the club's first title - indoor or outdoor - since 2007, when they won the national (outdoor) championship. 

An exciting final was expected, and goals weren't long in coming; the club from Ilulissat went behind in the second minute, and conceded a second a couple of minutes later. They were level within a few minutes and added two more goals towards the end of the first half. B-67 were camped in the Nagdlúnguak-48 half for most of the second half, but they were denied time after time by a well-organised defence, and N-48 further increased their lead a few minutes before time. 

B-67 had removed their goalkeeper a few minutes earlier in an attempt to claw their way back into the match, and this left them vulnerable to N-48's counters. They paid the penalty when Kunuuteeraq Isaksen completed his hat-trick, but in the last minute, B-67 did finally score a third. It was an engrossing, entertaining final which proved to be the perfect showcase for Greenlandic Futsal. It was also the perfect revenge for N-48, who had been routed 5:0 by B-67 in the group stages.

Host club Kâgsagssuk, awarded the right to host the tournament due to it celebrating the 80th anniversary of its foundation, were backed by an exuberant home support, and this did them no harm as they reached the semi-finals, where they lost by the odd goal in five to B-67. Last year's champions, IT-79, defeated Kâgssagssuk by 6 goals to 2 in the group stage on their way to the semis, but there they were soundly beaten 5:2 by the team they thrashed in last year's final, Nagdlúnguak-48. Much had been expected of them after their triumph in the competition last year, but as in last year's outdoor competition, they were swept aside by more organised opposition.

The third-place play-off between Kâgssagssuk and IT-79 was a much closer affair than their encounter in Group B; in fact, the hosts might feel that they did enough to win, but they lost an entertaining encounter by 2:1. The match ended in some controversy, with Kâgssagssuk players and staff berating the match officials, seemingly feeling that the referee had blown for time early.

Earlier, Kugsak defeated K-1933 4:3 in the fifth-place play-off, in which K-1933's goalkeeper scored twice, the first being an unopposed solo run and shot which flew into the net. T-41 were 6:0 up at the break in their seventh-place play-off against K-64, and kept up the onslaught in the second half, eventually running out 13:4 winners. The play-off for ninth place was won by NÛK, who defeated FC Malamuk 2:1 in the first match to be played on the final day.

Two days after the tournament, controversy of a more unsavoury kind came to light, courtesy of an article on the KNR website, which is run by the national television station of the same name, which stated that B-67 (and Greenland) manager Tekle Ghebrelul had suffered racial abuse after his side's semi-final victory over Kâgssagssuk. Disturbingly, the article also mentioned that it was not the first time that Ghebrelul, who comes from Eritrea and has lived in Greenland for 14 years, has been the victim of racism in the country; he had previously been targeted at the 2012 national championship in Aasiaat, together with several Danes. Also, it alleged that Danish players - or Greenlanders of Danish descent - had also previously been racially abused during and after matches. Later, GBU president John Thorsen felt compelled to address the spectators at the Maniitoq Hallen and rightly condemned what had taken place.

On the plus side, the tournament highlighted the continued improvement of standards in Greenland since the GBU ditched the old Indoor Soccer rules and began organising Futsal tournaments. In an article on the Sermitsiaq website, Ghebrelul was complimentary of a number of the teams, especially the new champions Nagdlúnguak-48 and in particular the Reimer twins, Nick and Lars-Erik (where have we seen them mentioned before?), but also about T-41 and Kugsak-45. He was also of the opinion that Greenland are good enough to attain FIFA membership. 

The GBU joining FIFA may yet come to pass, but not just yet. When that day comes, however, the GBU may well be able to send out a Futsal team capable of surprising a few more experienced national teams. They are certainly on the right track, and who's to say that several of the players performing at this year's tournament will not go on to bigger and better things?


GROUP A (B-67, K-1933, Nagdlúnguak-48, NÛK, T-41)

06/04/17 Nagdlúnguak-48 8:2 NÛK
06/04/17 B-67 3:1 K-1933
07/04/17 Nagdlúnguak-48 4:2 T-41
07/04/17 NÛK 0:1 B-67
07/04/17 K-1933 2:2 T-41
08/04/17 Nagdlúnguak-48 0:5 B-67
08/04/17 NÛK : K-1933
08/04/17 B-67 9:1 T-41
08/04/17 Nagdlúnguak-48 8:6 K-1933
08/04/17 NÛK 5:9 T-41

 


GROUP B (FC Malamuk, IT-79, K-64, Kâgssagssuk, Kugsak-45)

06/04/17 FC Malamuk 4:5 K-64
06/04/17 Kâgssagssuk 2:6 IT-79
07/04/17 FC Malamuk 1:5 Kugsak-45
07/04/17 K-64 5:8 Kâgssagssuk
07/04/17 IT-79 3:3 Kugsak-45
08/04/17 FC Malamuk 3:6 Kâgssagssuk
08/04/17 K-64 3:6 IT-79
08/04/17 Kâgssagssuk 3:2 Kugsak-45 
08/04/17 FC Malamuk 0:2 IT-79
08/04/17 K-64 6:15 Kugsak-45



SEMI-FINALS

09/04/17 Kâgssagssuk 2:3 B-67
09/04/17 Nagdlúnguak-48 5:2 IT-79


9TH-PLACE PLAY-OFF

09/04/17 NÛK 2:1 FC Malamuk


7TH-PLACE PLAY-OFF

09/04/17 T-41 13:4 K-64


5TH-PLACE PLAY-OFF

09/04/17 K-1933-3:4 Kugsak-45


3RD-PLACE PLAY-OFF

09/04/17 IT-79 2:1 Kâgssagssuk


FINAL

09/04/17 B-67 3:5 Nagdlúnguak-48


GBU TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT

Malik MIKKAELSEN (IT-79); Lars-Erik REIMER (Nagdlúnguak-48), Kunuuteeraq ISAKSEN (Nagdlúnguak-48), John Ludvig BROBERG (B-67), Nicklas THORLEIFSEN (B-67)

TOP SCORER: Bent PIVAT (K-64) - 12 goals
MOST COMBATIVE PLAYER: Søren KREUTZMANN (Kágssagssuk)
MOST TECHNICAL PLAYER: Nicklas THORLEIFSEN (B-67)
BEST PLAYER: Lars-Erik REIMER (Nagdlúnguak-48)  

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Elements of the above information were gleaned from Sermitsiaq (including several results and the GBU's awards, listed above), KNR and various Facebook pages. 

PFB ON TOUR - KONINKLIJKE HFC : JONG AZ

The Dutch third-level fixture between Koninklijke HFC and Jong AZ on 25 February was a meeting of two clubs who have experienced contrasting fortunes so far this season; Jong AZ are the runaway leaders of the brand spanking new Tweede Divisie (introduced at the start of the season by the KNVB as part of a raft of reforms to the Dutch football pyramid) and were fourteen points clear before kick-off, whilst "the Good Old HFC" were fourth from bottom.

Nevertheless, a decent crowd turned up at the Spanjaardslaan in Haarlem to see whether the hosts could temporarily halt Jong AZ's seemingly inexorable march towards the Eerste Divisie and get back to winning ways after losing their last two matches. It was also a chance to exact revenge for a 5:1 battering suffered in Alkmaar in September.

It was Jong AZ who made most of the running during the first half, however, and almost broke the deadlock in the 7th minute when Levi Opdam's dive towards an inviting cross from Myron Boadu only just failed to connect. Jop van der Linden was denied by a clearance just in front of the goal-line a few minutes later, and after Wouter Haarmans was foiled by some last-ditch defending at the other end, Jamie Jacobs' scuffed volley from the edge of the six-yard box was well saved by HFC's veteran goalkeeper Gerard van Rossum.

 Koninklijke HFC - in white shirts - and Jong AZ take to the pitch before their Tweede Divisie match on 25 February (Photo: author's own)

The first twenty minutes was almost all Jong AZ, with Calvin Stengs being the focal point for most of their attacks and defenders Pantelis Hatzidiakos and Joop van der Linden nullifying any threat from Koninklijke HFC. Van der Linden also tested van Rossum with a wickedly swerving long-range effort as the visitors kept up the pressure, but the HFC man was equal to it.

HFC came more into the game as the half wore on but were unable to capitalise on an error from Jong AZ 'keeper Nick Olij, who failed to control a back-pass and almost played his team into trouble on the edge of his penalty-area, but recovered to dribble past two HFC players and play the ball to safety. With five minutes left of the first half, van der Linden's curling free-kick from 25 yards out caught everyone out and clipped the top of the crossbar.

HFC were defending stubbornly but attacks were mostly limited to long balls towards Wouter Haarmans up front, who was running his socks off for no reward, and Koen Beeren, who was similarly frustrated despite his best efforts. Finally, though, with four minutes to go to the break, the hosts finally delivered a shot on goal through Nigel Castien, an acrobatic half-volley from the edge of the penalty area which caused Olij few problems.

Moments later, the ball was up the other end of the pitch and nestling in the back of the net. Opdam's curling piledriver from the edge of the box took the slightest of nicks off the top of an outstretched HFC leg, flew over the already airborne van Rossum and into the net to give Jong AZ the lead in the 43rd minute. HFC came close to equalising seconds later, but a well-delivered cross failed to find anyone to turn the ball in. 

 A HFC defender clears his lines during the first half (Photo: author's own)

HFC survived another scare as the half came to an end, van Rossum getting down to save a toe-poke at the bottom of his right-hand post, but they went in a goal behind to a Jong AZ team who deserved their lead, though they were finding it all more of a struggle than perhaps they themselves had anticipated prior to kick-off.

Half-time saw little girls treading carefully past the front of the stand with pitchers full of juice almost too heavy for them to carry, giddy schoolgirls taking group photos of each other, and an elderly chap being escorted from the stand by a steward to finish off his glass of beer. It also saw the game's first substitution: HFC's Vince de Kwant made way for team-mate Kevin Sterling.

The second half started with Koninklijke HFC showing much more industry and, on occasion, no little guile. In a game of fairly few chances and even fewer talking-points, there was consternation amongst the home support a few minutes after the restart when van der Linden pulled back Wessel Boer, who had shown him and the rest of the Jong AZ team a clean pair of heels, but referee Puts resolutely refused to give a free-kick to HFC, let alone a yellow card to the visiting defender.

After Jong AZ's Hatzidiakos almost caught everybody out with a long-range effort that fizzed wide of goal, team-mate Nick Doodeman almost doubled his team's advantage on the hour when he rose to meet a cross from the right at the far post; his header looped across the face of goal only to strike the inside of the post, and the ball was eventually cleared with difficulty.

HFC's Hols was contributing more and more to his team's cause with some penetrating runs, and he sent in a low cross which only just evaded Koen Beeren's despairing lunge. The two of them combined to thread a ball through to Vince Sterling two minutes later, but he was foiled by a tackle from the last defender.

Jong AZ defend a Koninklijke HFC corner late in the second half (Photo: author's own)

Jong AZ indulged in a little Route 1 football with a quarter of an hour to go; goalkeeper Olij sent the ball up towards midfield, where Ferdy Druijf outran the defence, latched on to the ball and thrashed the ball towards van Rossum's goal from the edge of the area, but the veteran saved well, putting the ball behind at his left-hand post.

Beeren and Tim van Soest both had half-chances for the home side, whilst the visitors wasted another chance in the 84th minute, which ended up in the arms of van Rossum with Driujf again frustrated. HFC were still furiously attempting to create chances as the game entered injury-time, but the closest they came was when van Soest blazed the ball over Olij's goal in the 91st minute. 

There was plenty of resolve from Koninklijke HFC, particularly during the second half, but inspite of an impressive showing from Hols and the HFC midfield, Jong AZ held on fairly comfortably to consolidate their lead at the top of the table. Haarmans, Castien and Beeren also played well for the hosts, while AZ's defensive partnership of van der Linden and Hatzidiakos remained steadfast and team-mates Opdam, Stengs and Boadu showed both speed and skill. Jong AZ were outstanding at times, whilst Koninklijke HFC can take heart from a good second-half display, but they will need to create - and take - more chances in the coming weeks.


POSTSCRIPT: Since the above match was played, Jong AZ have increased their lead at the top of the Tweede Divisie to 18 point, whilst Koninklijke HFC have moved up to 11th place after winning three matches in a row. 



KONINKLIJKE HFC: 1 Gerard VAN ROSSUM, 2 Danny HOLS, 3 Oscar WILFERT, 4 Carlos OPOKU, 5 Vincent VOLKERT, 10 Nigel CASTIEN, 11 Wouter HAARMANS (20 Tim VAN SOEST), 15 Vince DE KWANT (17 Vince STERLING), 18 Wessel BOER (8 Jeffrey SAM SIN), 19 Koen BEEREN, 23 Gertjan TAMERUS

SUBSTITUTES (not used): 22 Ton BOKS (GK), 14 Jacob NOORDMANS, 16 André MORGAN, 21 Robin EINDHOVEN

JONG AZ: 25 Nick OLIJ, 12 Pantelis HATZIDIAKOS, 14 Jop VAN DER LINDEN, 32 Levi OPDAM, 34 Calvin STENGS (50 Robin SCHOUTEN), 35 Owen WIJNDAL, 37 Nick DOODEMAN, 43 Viktor Karl EINARSSON (47 Vincent REGELING), 44 Myron BOADU (38 Ferdy DRUIJF), 45 Jamie JACOBS, 49 Teun KOOPMEINERS

SUBSTITUTES (not used): 31 Koen BUCKER (GK), 33 Justin BAKKER, 46 Furkan KURBAN

REFEREE: Kevin PUTS
LINESMEN: DJ KEMPINGA, A VAN STORMBROEK
4TH OFFICIAL: R TIESINGA

ATTENDANCE: 500 
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AUTHOR's NOTE: Thanks to all at Koninklijke HFC for their assistance; further information on the Tweede Divisie can be found via:

tweededivisie.org

FOOTBALL IN ANTARCTICA - A POTTED HISTORY

Football is played all over the world, and often in some rather unlikely places, but not many are as isolated, and surely none are as inhospitable, as Antarctica. The world's coldest continent may be inhabited by no more than 3000 people at any one time - the population mostly consists of scientists and civillian staff billeted at a large number of research stations dotted around it - but it does have a football history dating back more than a century, although you would not believe it if you took everything some people claim at face value.

In a documentary released at the beginning of 2016, David Beckham: For The Good of The Game, which chronicled David Beckham's successful attempt to play seven games of football in the space of ten days seven continents, the man himself informed the viewer that neither he nor his team of researchers could "find any record of any official match played in Antarctica" and that, as far as they were concerned, they had played (and his team had won) the first official match on the continent..even though the match was played on what was essentially a seven-a-side pitch.
  
The intention of this article is not to ridicule Beckham's claim, but it should be noted that perhaps the first recorded mention of football being played in Antarctica was during the British National Antarctic Expedition, more commonly referred to as the Discovery expedition - named after the boat which left London for Antarctica in 1901 - and on one occasion involved quite "a good deal of promiscuous kicking and foul play ("Scott of the Antarctic: A Biography," David Crane, 2006/Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge) amongst those involved in a kickabout. 

An extract taken from the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) website mentioned that, sometime between April 1902 and September 1902, during the Antarctic winter, in other words, sporting activities became part of the routine: "To entertain themselves the men played football, formed a theatre group and learnt to ski and toboggan."

A much less heralded expedition, the Scottish National Expedition, led by William Speirs Bruce, left the Scottish town of Troon in November 1902 aboard the Scotia, bound for Antarctica. The expedition, which made two voyages to the Antarctic, discovered Coats Land, at the eastern end of the Weddell Sea, but was in danger of being hemmed in for the winter by pack-ice. To keep the crew's spirits up, Bruce first organised a football match on the ice on or around 9 March 1904. The expedition eventually made it safely back to Scotland, reaching the mouth of the Clyde in July 1904.

One of the first pictorial records - probably the first - of football being played in Antarctica is a photograph on the Scott Polar Research Institute website, dating from during the Antarctic Relief Expeditions (1902-04), entitled "Football match between Mornings and 'Terra Novas.' 18 miles from Discovery."

Arguably the most famous photograph demonstrating football being played on the continent is titled "Eleven-a-side," which was taken by the famed Australian photographer Frank Hurley sometime during the British Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which took place between 1914-17 and was headed by the Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackelton. The photograph was among those featured in an exhibition at the Ralls Collection gallery in Washington, DC back in 2012 entitled "The Photographs of Frank Hurley." 

The photographer hosted a series of lectures-cum-exhibitions ("In The Grip Of The Polar Pack Ice") around his native Australia in 1918 and 1919, and one of his segments, called "Antarctic Football", documented a midwinter football match between the crew and the scientists sailing on the Endurance. Hurley, whose contribution to documenting Antarctic expeditions cannot be overstated, experienced the First World War at close hand, and later became an acclaimed film-maker and journalist. He died in 1962, aged 76.

It is unclear as to whether Shackleton actually played football himself at any time, let alone during his expedition, but in his book "South!", he wrote of a football game that took place five days before Christmas 2014: "We remained moored to a floe over the following day, the wind not having moderated; indeed, it freshened to a gale in the afternoon, and the members of the staff and crew took advantage of the pause to enjoy a vigorously contested game of football on the level surface of the floe alongside the ship."

Of a game that took place on 06 January 1915, which included a lucky escape for Frank Worsley, Shackleton wrote: "The weather was clear, and some enthusiastic football-players had a game on the floe until, about midnight, Worsley dropped through a hole in rotten ice while retrieving the ball. He had to be retrieved himself."

There is, as mentioned above, no direct evidence that Shackleton had played football during the expedition, but it was noted in "South!" that games of football and hockey were played on and after 25 February 1915 and that "all hands joined in many a strenuous game."

THE BALL ROLLS ON: A kickabout at the Norwegian Troll Base in January 2011 (Photo: Bertran Kill/Norsk Polarinstitutt  Picture reproduced under copyright conditions and with the kind permission of Bertran Kill and the Norsk Polarinstitutt)

The diary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott noted that the members of his ill-fated Terra Nova expedition (1910-13) played football from time to time, as this excerpt, dated Tuesday May 2nd, illustrates: "To-day have had our first game of football; a harassing southerly wind sprang up, which helped my own side to the extent of three goals."

The entry for Friday 19th May 1911 illustrated this: "We played football during the noon hour – the game gets better as we improve our football condition and skill." Another excerpt, this time dated Monday 17th June 1911, noted that "there is little to attract one out of doors..Yet we are only nine days off the ‘light value’ of the day when we left off football – I hope we shall be able to recommence the game in that time."

One man who was on Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition but who ended up not joining him on his journey to the South Pole was the Australian scientist and geographer Frank Debenham, who suffered a knee injury whilst playing football in Antarctica; this unfortunate occurrence may have ended up saving his life as he was subsequently judged unfit to take part in Scott's tragic trek. Like Frank Hurley, Debenham fought in and survived the First World War. He went on to have a distinguished career in the field of geography and died in Cambridge in 1965.

Another individual who went to Antarctica with Scott but did not join him on the journey to the South Pole was Tryggve Gran, who had actually represented Norway in the country's first ever international match as a 20 year-old, an 11:3 defeat away to Sweden on 12 July 1908; it was to prove the former Mercantile player's only appearance for his country. Gran was part of the search party that found the bodies of Scott and his comrades Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers in November 1912. At the outbreak of the First World War, he was a pilot in the Norwegian Army Air Service, and joined the RAF (then known as the Royal Flying Corps) in 1916, two years after his original application was refused because Norway remained neutral during the Great War. 

Curiously, he was suspected of being a member of the Nasjonal Samling, the Norwegian Fascist political party led by Vidking Quisling, during the Second World War, and was made head of the Hirdens Flykorps, the government's air force at the time. As a result of his collaboration with the NS, he was jailed for 18 months in 1948. Gran died in 1980, aged 91, having spent most of the rest of his life writing a number of books and giving lectures on Scott's expeditions to the Antarctic.

One location in the sub-Antarctic region (although not located on the continent of Antarctica) which features heavily in the history of football in those parts was the British dependency of South Georgia; it was a very popular pastime for those employed at the various whaling-stations dotted across the island right up to and including the 1960s. It is still played there today.

BREAKING THE RUN: Personnel from the Rothera and McMurdo Bases pose after the game in February 2011 between the two bases. McMurdo won 1:0, breaking a run of defeats by American base and ship personnel against the UK base (Photo: Lihini Aluwihare  Picture reproduced under copyright conditions and with the kind permission of Lihini Aluwihare and The Antarctic Sun)

Most of the football played on Antarctica takes place on the Antarctic Peninsula, the warmest and most northerly of the continent. Several of the bases have rudimentary football pitches, but according to an edition of a Lonely Planet book covering Antarctica, the Argentine scientific base of Esperanza, built in 1951 at Hope Bay in the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula, proudly possesses its very own gravel pitch. However, this claim has been scotched by staff working at the base. Nowadays, those stationed at the base play games inside one of the hangars or, weather permitting, out on the ice.

Among them are a group of thirteen children who, together with their parents, live at Esperanza. They and their teacher, Fredy Miranda, take part in the annual Global Rural Community Football Gathering, which is organised every October by Argentine charity Red Comunidades Rurales, which involves schoolchildren from rural areas across the world playing football and also taking part in a project which benefits their community. The pupils of Escuela no. 38 Ptte. R. Raúl Alfonsín have played football to their hearts' content and, together with their teachers, taken part in projects on and around the base highlighting recycling, the need for cleaner air, soil and water, and better management of the environment in general.

In years gone by, the base's footballers played host to teams from other bases in games played outdoors, including a fixture against the Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins Base in May 1971; what was proclaimed to be the first-ever match between teams representing two Antarctic bases ended in a 7:3 win for Esperanza.

However, other records show that - with apologies to Beckham & Co - the honour of participating in the first "international" match to be played in Antarctica fell to the crew of the British vessel HMS Snipe and their counterparts from the Argentine ship ARA Seaver, who, along with their two countries, were intertwined in a territorial dispute (what's new?) some twenty-three years earlier. The game between the two teams took place at Port Foster on the South Shetland Islands on 5 February 1948, and HMS Snipe won the match by a goal to nil.

What was claimed by the journal of the Chilean Air Force to be "the world's southernmost international football match" took place at the Chilean-run Teniente Marsh Air Base on 19 January 1986 between a team from Marsh and another representing Uruguay's Artigas Base, situated a couple of miles down the road. The match was refereed by a member of the Chilean Navy, Rolando Carvallo, and the final score was 2:2. The journal listed the teams in the following order:

TENIENTE MARSH: Hugo Godoy, Pedro Sandoval, José Vidal, Alejandro Frías, Omar Saéz, Osvaldo Bahamondes, Gerardo Saavedra, Carlos Salazar, Marcos Arévalo, Raúl Cuadra, Reineri Merino

ARTIGAS: Germiní Ferninando, Jacinto Acuña, Melconian, Derseo Da Costa, Domingo Montaldo, Miguel Dornelles, Luis Laurias, Luis Freitas, Orosman Pereira

There was also an Inter-Bases Championship, a World Cup for Antarctic bases, if you will, which took place in January 1988 and which was hosted by Artigas Base, involved personnel from the host base plus representatives from Frei (Chile), Bellingshausen (Soviet Union) and Great Wall (PRC) bases. The Uruguayans went on to win the tournament. Unfrtunately, no record of any results from the tournament appear to exist.

More recently, a football tournament was due to have been held in November 2014 at the privately-run Camp Union Glacier Base in aid of Global United and Cancer Research, though it is unclear as to whether the tournament ever got off the ground. A football match was held at the Chilean Glaciar Unión Base, which was opened in January 2014, not far from the Camp Union Glacier Base, on 4 December 2015. The match was between a Glaciar Unión side made up of military personnel and scientists stationed at the base and a team from the ALE company, who arrived at the Chilean base on a trailer behind a Caterpillar truck. Due to the lack of a suitable coloured disc, the time-honoured "stone, paper, scissors" routine was used to determine who would kick off. Glaciar Unión went on to win what was described online as the latest edition of the Clásico Antárctico by 2 goals to 1. (ALE also played a match against a Chinese side on 28 December last, but no result is available.)

For the more statistically-minded readers, please find below a small selection of results of friendlies played between Antarctic stations - principally Rothera - and/or visiting ships. Kindly note that there is no full-size pitch at Rothera, and the list of results is not exhaustive.

05/02/48 HMS Snipe 1:0 ARA Seaver 
12/02/49 Base Soberanía 1:1 Station B (Deception Island)
19/01/86 Teniente Marsh 2:2 Artigas
??/01/05 Rothera 2:0 RV Lawrence M Gould
20/12/05 Rothera 1:4 RRS James Clark Ross
03/02/07 Rothera 4:0 RV Lawrence M Gould
26/02/07 Rothera 0:0 Morrisons Builders Dream Team
18/03/09 Rothera 5:1 RRS Ernest Shackleton
23/01/10 Rothera defeated RV Lawrence M Gould 
??/02/11 Rothera 0:1 McMurdo
21/01/12 Rothera 6:0 RV Lawrence M Gould
07/03/12 Base Prat defeated RRV Ernest Shackleton
20/01/13 Rothera 1:0 RV Lawrence M Gould
18/01/14 Rothera 3:0 Palmer Station LTER
07/06/14 O'Higgins Base 3:2 Rancagua (O'Higgins Base)
04/12/15 Glaciar Unión Base 2:1 ALE (Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions)
16/02/16 South Georgia 3:0 Antarctic Endurance (mixed Royal Navy & Royal Marines team)

Football continues to be played on the Antarctic continent, although information on matches is extremely difficult to come by, and dates and/or results are not always available or verifiable. Many of the bases which play football, such as China's Zhongshan base, appear to indulge in kickabouts amongst themselves rather than take on teams from other bases, supply ships, etc. Others, such as McMurdo, have small internal competitions (mostly indoors) but do play friendlies against "outsiders" on occasion. Rothera, the biggest British base in Antarctica, regularly hosts matches against visiting ships, one of the most recent being a game in mid-March last year against HMS Protector.

Visits to bases by supply ships and scientists to and the changing of personnel at bases have long been regarded as social occasions by those working at bases on the White Continent, and football matches between those stationed at the bases and their visitors are an integral part of these. What the likes of Scott, Shackleton, Hurley and others would make of the advances in equipment and the way Antarctica has become steadily more and more accessible over the course of the last hundred years one can only guess, but these pioneers and others like them would be gratified to know that football remains, just as it always has been, a method of recreation in Antarctica and that games - or their outcomes - don't appear to be taken too seriously by those taking part. Long may it remain that way.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Some of the results were taken from the following websites/blogs (again, the list is not exhaustive): museomaritimo.com, spitsbergen.de, antarcticsun.usap.gov.

Other information was gleaned from sources such as:

LaVoz: http://mundod.lavoz.com.ar/futbol/futbol-en-la-antartida-en-medio-de-un-glaciar

Glasgow Digital Library: http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/scotia/gooant/gooant050501.htm

Cronicas del Uruguay y la Antártida: http://cronicasantarticas.blogspot.nl/

Many thanks go to Waldemar Fontes (Instituto Antártico Uruguayo), Peter Rejcek (The Antarctic Sun), Ann Kristin Balto and Ivar Stokkeland (Norsk Polarinstitutt), Nisha Harris and Stephenie Cahalane (Australian Antarctic Division), Reiner Canales (INACH), Fredy and Gabriela Miranda, Georgina Cronin and Lucy Martin (Scott Polar Research Institute) and Joanna Rae (British Antarctic Survey) for their help and advice.

Kindly note that the photographs provided for this article were provided under strict conditions - they were, and remain, under copyright - and with the kind permission of those individuals and organisations (Norsk Polarinstitutt and The Antarctic Sun) mentioned under said photographs in the article. Should you wish to use these photographs, it is recommended that you contact said sources directly and not lift them from this article or anywhere else on the internet.

Please find below the link to the "Football in Antarctica - South Georgia" article, which was published in 2014:

https://patmcguinness.blogspot.nl/2014/04/football-in-antarctica-south-georgia.html