The morning of the start of the tournament it was clear the city of Abertone was more than ready. While down almost every street the flags of the competing nations hung it was clear that you were in a nation fully behind their national team. The streets hung with Yellow and Black wolf banners, bars and cafe's had staff decked in the national shirt and even the buses had been painted yellow. The only deviation from the colour palette was provided by visiting fans and the large blue signposts erected that had directions towards the stadium, the fan park and various destinations a guest might need, on these was almost every language you could imagine and sat beneath them was a Game Voulenter or two, usually young people dressed in plain yellow t-shirts and with wolf hats on. They had stickers and banners to give to fans who flooded as evening began towards the Stadio Imperial. The stadium itself had even had its famed red roofing given a new touch of paint to yellow and yet more flags fluttered from underneath. Around the ground itself were various stands set up by locals, some even in their front garden, selling food, drink and souveniors. Many of these souvenior vendors wary of the police checking the "authenticity" of their merchandise.

Once inside the ground two large stages dominated each end of the ground. Once the time appointed for TV channels across the world to join them the opening ceremony began. First there was a performance from a marching band formed of the Abertone Combined Services who played various classical musical pieces from Abertonian artists. Next though the stadium went dark and the spotlight beamed onto the stage to the right, there Emma Marrone a popular Abertone singer, performed. No sooner had the last note of her song finished than the stadium went dark again this time the spotlight onto the opposite stage where Youssou N'Dour performed, between the two they showcased music from both the East and West of the Empire and at each performance the darkness was used to screen the stage being wheeled forward so that after three songs each both found themselves in the centre circle with the stage now forming one solid platform. Once the unification of the musicians had taken place they performed a duet before all the lights came on again.

At that point an announcer introduced Alfeo Laterza, a legend in Abertone football with 98 caps for the nation. He held in his hand a silver trophy  intended for the semi final winner who won the Ardian half of the draw. He placed it on a pedestal before Iacopo Vitale was announced, he too was a well known Abertone footballer having lead teams to Eastern Championships on six occasions and one of the few to have won all three of the nations top honours, the East and West Championship along with the Emperors Cup. He held a second silver trophy intended for the winner of the other semi final. "Ladies and gentleman allow us to introduce the Ardian and Albion Memorial Trophies, both of which will become, we hope, the premier youth football championships on Mundus." applause came round the arena before the four different world cups were brought out. Lady Filippa Andreas of Cassiopeia brought out the Womens Blind Football trophy alongside a retired Manlio Nizzola who had been the first captain of the Abertone Mens Blind Football team. Next came  a representative from the 2021 Nya Aland Mens Team bringing out the Mens World Cup while a member of Achkaerin's Womens World Cup Winning squad brought out the womens. With all six trophies on display it was time for the Emperor to make his appearance.

"Good evening" he began as he walked up the steps to stand in the middle of the circle formed by the various trophies. "Welcome to Abertone. The first world cup that will take the tournament to two continents in one competition. We are excited to have you all hear and we can't wait for the games to get underway. Football, or as it gets called here in Abertone, Calcio, is a massive part of our culture, of our society and of life. We naturally are praying for an Abertone victory but what we really really want is for you all to spend the next few weeks meeting people from across the world and celebrating the shared passion we all have for football. It does not matter whether you follow the highly paid mega-stars of Nya Aland or the bank manager come footballers of East Moreland we will all be cheering you on and wishing you success. Over the next few weeks dreams will come true and heroes will be made. I'm keen to get started and so with that said I declare the tournaments open. May the best sides win."


Mens Groups A and C half of the draw will determine the Ardian Memorial Troophy while B and D will play for the Albion Memorial Trophy

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Group Stage Fixture Lists

Men's Draw

Women's Draw

Blind Mens Draw

Blind Womens Draw

From one Emperor to another I am hopeful that this request will be accepted.

I believe that you, or at least a representative of your nation is due to attend the Festival of Sail in East Moreland. If this is the case I would like to extend an invitation to dine with myself, an the generous hosts of the De Angelis Family aboard their Support Yacht which is being showcased at the Festival. We are both long standing Empires in Ardia and I believe that once we have meet face to face we can become stronger friends. I hope that you will accept this invitation in person however look forward to meeting any representative that you send.

Best Regards

Emperor Marco IX

To: - Stas Petrov Minister for Trade, Economy and Finance

My name is Evaristo Aiolfi and I represent an organisation called Abertone Micro Banks. We are a collection of small scale lenders that offer unconventional and generally more high risk credit opportunities. Many of our projects involve giving those unable to access traditional forms of credit and banking a chance to gain credit, thus boosting their credit scores and also providing them with an opportunity to finance business projects. We work with several small scale lenders ranging from Church groups seeking to put their funds to charitable endeavours to those with savings wishing to see a return on their savings.

How we work is we receive applications from individuals generally seeking to borrow less than $30,000, our organisation checks the borrower out to ensure that the request for funds it likely to see a return. For example a young person with no credit history unable to get a loan from a traditional bank may have an excellent business plan but be unable to fund its start up as traditional banks look not at their potential but at their past. We would if satisfied the project would succeed give it our approval and then any of the microbanks associated with us may offer the funds either in part or fully. Generally a microbank will require between 7-10% interest be paid on the loan. We are able therefore to support local businesses to grow and also provide a return on our funders savings for them. This is a genuine bottom up development project.

In addition we can offer microbanking opportunities by working with communities to provide banking for those who have so far been unable to engage with traditional large scale banks. One example of a project in the Eastern Part of the Abertone Empire has seen a local AMB affiliated organisation travel around a remote local community on a weekly basis collecting funds that could then be utilised by the whole community to manage very small scale projects such as fence repairs etc. We at AMB ensure that lenders are vetted and approved prior to giving them our support.

We would like an oppurtunity to begin this work in your country. We believe that as a fellow Christian country many of our lenders utilise our service as a means of doing Gods work and supporting the poor, as such many of these lenders actively invest their interest earnings back into the community from which they came. This has seen projects such as irrigation systems built in parts of our Eastern Empire. We contact you at this time having seen large conglomerates investing in your nation. We believe such investments from economic behemoths can have a huge downside on small and start up business as they face competition that they could not dream of overcoming. This however should not stop Samantran's from aiming to be entrepreneurs and maybe launch the next great conglomerate.

With your blessing we would like to begin operations within your nation and are hopeful of a long and successful partnership between AMB, our lenders and your people.


Best Regards
Evaristo Aiolfi
Project Manager AMB
Tiny Banking Giant Results

Several weeks ago Emperor Marco IX demanded $130 million for restoration work on the Royal Villa of Faidello that has long been an exclusive property of the Lupo family. Initially members of the Senate spoke out against this spending project stating that the Lupo family had more than enough money to fund the project themselves over the course of a number of years. The Emperor however was keen for all the work to be completed by the end of 2022 and insisted that the Imperial Treasury find the money. Several behind the scenes discussions took place between concerned Senators and the Emperor's cousin Consul Graziano Lupo. Today the Consul confirmed in his daily opening report to the Senate that "concessions on the funding have been reached. I have sat down with the Emperor and we have a list of jobs that are needed urgently and those that can be done at a later date. The Imperial Treasury will ensure the urgent works are carried out without delay, meanwhile those that are not time critical will come from the Lupo family account. In addition those tennant farmers who rent land on the Villa's estate will receive two years relief from rent payments and for a total of 180 days a year the Villa's East Wing and gardens will be accessable by the general public so long as they have tickets and these shall be free." This marks the first time in the Empire's history that the general public will be freely able to access a royal residence. The Villa sits in some beautifully landscaped gardens and contains several highly respected fresco paintings.

The Senate have also been busy with measures to put before the Emperor to extend free University education to those with military service. Currently anyone who voulenteers for a minimum of five years in the Armed Forces gains free University tuition, under measures put forward by Consul Graziano those serving three years would get a reduction  of 50% for the first two years of a three year degree. Currently with Republican groups undertaking terrorist attacks in the Eastern part of the Empire there has been a push to increase the number of volunteer soldiers to permit deeper training for anti-terror operations.