The participating teams at Foca 08 were Football Friends (Foca), Banja Luka, Gorazde, Mostar, Sarajevo, Trebinje, Ustikolina, Zenica (all Bosnia and Herzegovina), Fotbal pro Rozvoj (Prague, Czech Republic), Sports dans la Ville (Lyons, France), KICKFAIR (Stuttgart, Germany), Strassenfussball furToleranz (Potsdam and Poznan, Germany and Poland), Oltalom Sports Association (Budapest, Hungary), Sport Against Racism (Dublin, Ireland), Latvian Street Soccer Association (Riga, Latvia), Niksic (Montenegro), CAIS Association (Lisbon, Portugal), Football Friends (Kragujevac, Serbia), Balkan Friends (Skopje, FYR Macedonia), Sokak Ligi (Istanbul, Turkey), Street League (London and Glasgow, England and Scotland), Dads Against Drugs (Hull, England) and Nacro (Liverpool, England).

Defending champions the USA, FIFA Women’s World Cup™ holders Germany and FIFA World Cup™ finalists Brazil are hotly tipped for gold at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament in Beijing.
Only 12 years have passed since 76,000 spectators celebrated the US team’s gold-medal winning display against China in Sanford Stadium, Athens (USA), but this year it is Chinas turn to host the women’s tournament, which now comprises 12 teams. Expanding the number of participants makes for a balanced, challenging and clearly structured format in which four teams have to pack their cases after the group stages, rather than two, as was the case with the ten participants in 2004.
A common feature of all the final matches in the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament to date has been the presence of the USA. Thus far, only the Norwegians have been able to get the better of them, in the Sydney final. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue in Beijing. The American team, currently ranked number one in the world, face at least five opponents who could be considered potential medal winners — world and European champions Germany, Norway, Sweden, Brazil and Asian champions Korea DPR. The top six in the FIFA women’s world ranking are all taking part in 2008, thus never before has the outcome of a Women’s Olympic Football Tournament been so open.
China PR is playing host to an elite women’s FIFA competition for the second time in a year following the FIFA Women’s World Cup China 2007 and is therefore familiar territory for all of the qualified teams except Canada. The Chinese, who have suffered a poor run of results recently, appear to have a reasonable chance of progressing in Group E, where Sweden, Canada and Argentina await.
Group F will see an early repeat of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2007 final between world and European champions Germany and Brazil. Korea DPR and Nigeria, still the only African team with previous Olympic experience, complete what appears to be the strongest first-round group. Finally, in Group G, defending champions USA and Norway (Olympic Champions in 2000) will be favourites to overcome Japan and debutants New Zealand.
All the leading lights in the women’s game will be in Beijing, of course, save for one woman who has participated in all eight FIFA women’s competitions since 1991 and who has collected honours like no other — Kristine Lilly. After an international career spanning more than 20 years, Lilly has decided to devote her energies in the near future to the next generation, namely her own.

CONMEBOL
The port town of Coquimbo was chosen to host the opening ceremony of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Chile 2008 on 19 November on the basis of an original online ticket sales competition. The four host cities of the tournament – Coquimbo, Chilian, La Florida and Temuco – participated in the simple, transparent and very democratic competition.
By the competition deadline at midnight on 31 May, Coquimbo had sold a winning 6,807 tournament ticket packages. This win also means that Chile will play their first two World Cup matches at Coquimbo’s new Francisco Sanchez Rumoroso stadium.
The mayors of the four cities heard the news while in New Zealand for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2008 draw, when Eduardo Rojas, executive director of the Local Organising Committee in Chile logged onto the Feria Ticket website on which sales were registered and announced the result. Coquimbo’s share accounted for 45.5% of the total of 14,969 ticket packages sold during the competition period. “We are extremely pleased with the result of this competition,” said Harold Mayne-Nicholls, president of the Chilean football association, speaking from Wellington. “Not only because we have sold the equivalent of 115,000 individual tickets and filled 35% of the total capacity of our new stadiums six months before the World Cup, but because communities have realised that this will be the major sporting event of the bicentenary.” “This win was a group effort,” said an emotional Oscar Pereira, mayor of Coquimbo, who minutes before hearing the result had signed a cooperation agreement with Auckland, which happens to be the host city for the opening match of New Zealand 2008. “We managed to mobilise the community and local businesspeople,” said Pereira. The four stadiums chosen for the competition, which will all be fully renovated, are the aforementioned Sanchez Rumoroso, Nelson Oyarzun (Chilian), el Municipal (La Florida) and Municipal German Becker (Temuco).