Ardian Memorial Cup / Albion Memorial Cup
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
Group Stage Fixture ListsMen's DrawWomen's DrawBlind Mens DrawBlind Womens Draw
