Non-League and Academy football writer

Over the course of last weekend, the 2025 Lovefootball Inner City (London) World Cup took place. Two great days of football, in the following piece, I’ll be writing a bit about how the men’s 11-a-side tournament went, at Wanstead Flats. Throughout both Saturday and Sunday, I was in east London covering the tournament, and I recognised a number of players and coaches, from non-League football, who were involved in the tournament.

On day one of the men’s 11-a-side tournament, and I attended six matches. The previous year’s winners, Iraq, impressed greatly in the group-stages of the tournament, winning all three of their group matches, without conceding a goal. Mehdi Fadhil, Amir, Hadi, and Omar Al-Seadi (Omar had an outstanding game against Mauritius) all impressed during the group-stages for Iraq. However, defensively they were very well organised throughout, and I was very impressed with how Sajad Marashi defended (former manager of Kodak (Harrow) on what was the first occasion that I’d actually seen him play.

Honduras, Poland, Zimbabwe, Brazil, France and Colombia, all comfortably advanced in to the knockout stage of the tournament. On the first day of the tournament, there were some really good games, and I recognised a number of players from non-League clubs, such as Albania player Arianit Krasniqi, Rafael Barbosa Dos Santos (Brazil), Juan Araque (Colombia), and Tanvir Ahmed (Bangladesh) – all very good players. 

On to Sunday, the final day of the tournament, and one of the tournament’s favourites – Brazil, were very unlucky to be knocked out by Ukraine (the game finished 3-3), on penalties and in the round of 16. Also, the holders of the tournament – Iraq, were unlucky to be knocked out, following a 0-0 draw with a very defensively well organised Spain side, who they lost to on penalties. I really do think, that had Iraq won that game in 60 minutes, than they would have gone on to win the tournament, for the second consecutive year.

Colombia, Poland, and Honduras were just some of the other nations, who progressed in to the quarter-finals of the tournament. And in the quarter-finals, Poland won 1-0 against France, managing that game well, in the game that I watched. Also, Colombia did very well to win against Zimbabwe, playing some really effective football in the process. And, Ecuador won their fixture, with Honduras also reaching the semi-finals stage.

My game of the tournament was the semi-final tie between Poland and Colombia, in which (the final score was 1-1, after 60 minutes) was a very end to end and entertaining game of football, between two very good sides. For Colombia, Juan Araque once again impressed greatly, as did Jakub Matwiejszyn (for Poland), of PFC Victoria London. But, it was Colombia who won the tie on penalties, reaching the final of the competition for a second consecutive year, this time facing Honduras in the final, after they had won their semi-final tie with Ecuador, also on penalties.

The final of the London 2025 Inner City World Cup, was won 1-0 by Honduras, who capped off an excellent tournament with another very good all-round performance. This was a really good and enjoyable tournament to attend, and I look forward to attending next year’s tournament, as well.