Nordic football teams from Denmark, Finland and Sweden participated in a football tournament arranged by China’s foreign ministry, earlier in September, 2015, reports the Embassy of Denmark in China.
“More than 100 netizens chose to support the Danish team during the football tournament. Before the match all Danish supporters got Danish flags, a Danish flag painted on the cheeks, a Sino-Danish gift celebrating the 65-year establishment of diplomatic ties. Of course Danish refreshments were offered from Carlsberg to all of the supporters.”
Before the Danes got the opportunity to play football, deputy head of the Danish Embassy Lars Bo Larsen was appointed to make the drawings for the tournament with his fellow Swedish colleague.
Deputy Director General Wang Shunqing from the Chinese Foreign Ministry gave the opening speech, while Deputy Director General Qi Mei from the Chinese Foreign Ministry handed out the prizes for the winners of the tournament.
The tournament saw the Danish team beat neighbours from the Sweden and Finland with 11-4 and 9-1, while also beating the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 12-3 and Chinese newspaper Global Times 11-0.
The final match deciding the championship was between Denmark and the Chinese Football Association (CFA). A true drama ended with a 5-4 victory to CFA. Denmark was at first in front 2-0, before CFA scored four goals. The Danes equalised shortly before the final whistle, but 10 seconds before the final whistle the CFA scored the final goal and made it to 5-4 to the Chinese side.
The Danish team was sponsored by Denmark’s national travel organisation VisitDenmark.