Walsall’s cup run came to an end as they were beaten by Middlesbrough in a dramatic 5-4 defeat in the second round of the ‘FIFA-Ultimate-Quaran-Team’ cup, despite pulling off the biggest upset of the tournament so far against Roma.
The concept behind the tournament was to give supporters their ‘football fix’ and prevent boredom after the season was recently postponed because of the current pandemic.
League Two club Leyton Orient organised the knockout competition, inviting other clubs, through their Twitter accounts, to compete in the tournament which was being played on the popular football computer game, FIFA 20.
Originally, it was meant involve only 64 clubs but with it capturing so many football fans attention on Twitter, they doubled it to 128 teams.
There are a variety of FIFA players representing clubs involved in the tournament. Competitors include footballers Andros Townsend and Neal Maupay, grime artist ‘Jaykae’, YouTuber ‘Randolph’ and some of the best FIFA players in the world.
There are also some supporters representing their beloved club in hope to make their club the ‘FIFA champions’.
The FIFA player leading The Saddlers to victory over Roma was Walsall’s very own Elijah Adebayo.
After the win against Roma, he said: “I didn’t play my best game but a win is a win and we’re into the next round!
“We stuck together and we’ve beaten one of the best admins around”
The FIFA tournament is helping raise money and is donating to two different charities, the EFL’s main sponsor, ‘Mind’ charity and the COVID-19 solidarity response fundraiser created by the ‘WHO’ charity.
Some of the donations are also going to the EFL so they can help provide financially struggling clubs with some support.
So far the tournament has raised more than £54,000.
A spokesperson from the ‘Mind’ charity thought this tournament was a great way to raise money as well as keep people occupied during this pandemic.
“This tournament is such a great initiative. It’s a great way of bringing football fans together whilst raising money, even with no competitive football to watch,” said the spokesperson.
