LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – Lenzerheide is one of the most action packed weeks on the World Cup tour and exciting battles are happening both on and off the racing slope. Wednesday night, 10 teams came out to face each other on two snow-covered football fields in Lenzerheide to participate in the 4th Annual FIS Alpine World Cup Football Tournament. The Tournament, follows a format where teams face each other in eight minute games with a two min brake between them, aiming to earn a spot in the 12minutes Final.

Almost 100 players and supporters showed up on the snow-covered football fields to enjoy an evening of fun sports. As last year, the Tournament had been organized by FIS with the help of Infront Sports and Media who worked with sponsors to create a budget which covered the cost of fields, local referees and a tent where hot drinks and food were served to the team and supporters.

This year, Team Austria, Infront Service Team, Infront House, FIS/FIS Marketing, Switzerland, Nordics, Media Switzerland (Host broadcaster SRF), North America, Italy and France all signed up with the goal of taking over the World Cup Football Champion title from the host broadcaster's team (Team Media Switzerland) who won the Tournament last year after defeating Team Nordics in the Big Final.

After the qualifying rounds, team France and team Nordics earned their spots in the Small Final while Infront Service Team played North America in the Big Final. In an exciting battle where until the very last penalty shot it seemed uncertain who would earn the third place, but Team France proved just slightly more precise than Team Nordics and walked away with a third place.

Things were not much different in the Big Final, where after multiple rounds of penalty shots, the Infront Service Team scored the winning goal and became the proud owner of the beautiful football crystal globe, an award similar to the ones awarded to the best skiers.

Teams were mainly made of coaches, team staff, technicians, media representatives and people involved with the World Cup family. As every year, a few skiers came out to support their teams - Julia Mancuso cheered on team North America, Daniela Merighetti showed up in full supporter gear, with a big Italian flag making it very clear who her team was. Manuel Osborne-Paradis and Erik Guay cheered on their coaches as they played in the Final while a couple of others also stopped by for a brief visit before heading back to their hotels to prepare for the last races of the season.

fis-ski.com

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