The IV World Football Championship among international students* was held at the ‘Burevestnik’ stadium of Tula State University from 26 September to 7 October.

It was organised by the TulSU Sports Club.

8 teams of our university took part in the World Championship: ‘Istiqlol’ (Central Asia), “Youth” (Socialist Republic of Vietnam), “Ancient Egyptians” and “Pharaohs” from the Arab Republic of Egypt, “African National Team”, “Somoniyon” (Republic of Tajikistan), “Syrian National Team” and “Indian National Team”.

The opening ceremony of the IV FIFA World Cup was honoured by the presence of Mikhail Vyacheslavovich Trunov, who at that time was the head of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the Tula Region, Eduard Sergeyevich Temnov, Vice-Rector for Educational Work, and Svetlana Anatolyevna Arkhipova, Director of the Institute of Pedagogy, Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism.

They noted that this sporting event has gained huge popularity among the youth of different countries and wished the players great success both in sports and studies.

The fight on the football field was hard. All the boys gave their best, demonstrating their skills, will to win and team spirit. Footballers admitted that they wanted to show everyone a beautiful and spectacular game and they succeeded in it! The passions on the field were running high.

According to the results of the competition, the places were distributed as follows:

I place - team ‘Somonyong’;

II place - the team ‘Team of African countries’;

III place - team ‘Istiqlol’.

Ulugbek Tagoymurodov and Faromas Faridunzoda (both from the Republic of Tajikistan) were recognised as top scorers, Gairat Goibov (Republic of Tajikistan) as the best goalkeeper and Abdul Karim Williams (Sierra Leone) as the best player.

- The Football World Championship for International Students, which is held annually at our university, is a unique sporting event,’ emphasised Marina Sukhanova, Head of the TulSU Sports Club. - It strengthens friendship and unites guys from different countries.

*The event was carried out in accordance with the schedule of work under the project “Formation of a model of physical culture and sports development in interrelation with patriotic education of student youth, taking into account the peculiarities of university resource provision” within the framework of the grant in the form of subsidies from the federal budget to educational organisations of higher education for the implementation of activities carried out within the framework of the competition for the best organisation of physical culture and sports work among educational organisations of higher education’ (Agreement № 075-15-2024-494)

Tatyana Krikunkova

Photographs by Darya Yanchuk