The next edition of football competitions for Olivia Business Centre Residents is underway. The defending champions from CityFit, as well as the always very solid competitors from HK Finance and PwC, seem to be the favourites for the final triumph. The chances of the most “football” team, last year’s finalists from the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation, are also highly rated.

However, it would be a mistake to underestimate the 2014 champions, the Energa Indestructible Dream Team, of whom they have won five out of seven matches so far. The dark horse of the league may turn out to be the perpetrator of the biggest surprise so far, i.e. the Olivia Business Centre team, which co-leads the competition, but which finished the previous editions closer to the lower regions of the table. On the other hand, the Staples team is making noticeable progress from season to season, confidently heading for the first time in history to reach the quarter-finals.

– Our team started this season very well. There is a noticeable improvement in the elements practiced during training and the overall team chemistry. We have more players who score goals and we consistently use the tactics we have agreed upon. Many of us have taken our game to the next level – says Marcin Burakiewicz, Senior Oracle Developer in Pricing Analytics and captain of the Staples team. – This season we are going to be in the top eight and fight in the knockout stage – he admits.

In the 2018/19 season, there are a record 17 teams in the league. Among them, there are several teams for which this is their debut in the competition: AirHelp, Arrow Electronics, FujiFilm and the Pomeranian Regional Chamber of Civil Engineers.

– We joined the league because we love football. In our team there are players from different countries, with different styles of play. For this reason, in our first season we have to learn how to play with each other and get used to the rules of the Olivia Sports league. However, we are hungry for victories, so we train hard to improve the quality of our team. Our goal in the first season is to finish in the TOP 5 – says Carlos Vieira, Team Leader of Brazilian Market and Team Captain of AirHelp.

League matches are played on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the evenings on a covered pitch with artificial turf at ul. Haller in Gdansk. The teams play a round-robin format, with the top eight advancing to the knockout stage. The grand finale is planned for May.

– Olivia Sports competitions are becoming more and more attractive every year. I have a very good opinion of the changes introduced by the organizer over the last two seasons, in particular the game with a ball intended for futsal and the withdrawal of players associated in professional leagues from the competition – adds Marcin Burakiewicz.

Standings & Results >>

author: Pawel Pinker