Mazars Make Light of the Rain to Claim the Champions League in Leeds

Business Fives returned to Leeds to host another Corporate Charity Five-a-Side tournament in a city that has a history for serving up some excellent football talent.  

Some flamboyant company kits helped brighten the Leeds sky as the tournament kicked off in wet conditions. The 78 goals across the 19 matches also added some sparkle to our Leeds event.  

Off the pitch it was raining donations as OPM Group successfully defended their top fundraiser crown as they managed to raise a truly magnificent £2,735 for Sue Ryder and the Parkinsons Fund. A fantastic effort from the team in pink which added to the £1,878 they raised by taking part in our Bradford event.  

Elsewhere Mazars raised £200 for Kirkwood Hospice, with runners up Evans Property Group raising £300 for Martin House Hospice to finish as runners up. 

It was Evans Property Group who made a fast start in the initial group stage, winning all five of their matches and securing their passage straight through to the Champions League Final. 

They were joined by Mazars who managed to win their final group match 4-2 to finish ahead of the Knights team and join Evans in the final.  

After a tense start in the final it was a reverse of the group stage score with Mazars winning 3-1 thanks to some heroics in goal by Man of The Match, Josh Miles who was singled out by Noel Whelan for his stand out performance. Both teams safely secured a place in the National Final in Manchester in April and with a third spot up for grabs the spotlight turned to the Europa League section final. 

Knights, FDM Group, Koerber and OPM Group made up the remaining group standings and went across to the Europa League Semi Finals.  

It was Koerber and Knights who found their way through to the Final and after an end-to-end game it finished 2-2 which resulted in a sudden death penalty shoot-out. It was Koerber who were victorious thanks to Chris Armistead’s save to lift the trophy. 

Our Europa League champions Koerber Supply Chain raised £150 for Heartbeat too bringing the total in our Yorkshire events to over £5,000 in the past couple of days. 

Following the action, the teams headed inside for a post-match drinks reception and a Q&A with Premier League legend and Leeds man, Noel Whelan. He was in top form and shared some cracking insights into life in and out the changing room as a professional footballer, as well as some hard truths about the reality of being a player in the spotlight and his own mental health battles which he has successfully overcome.  

Noel was on hand to present the awards with Andrew Broadbent from Knights taking home the top scorer award after netting a fantastic 11 goals throughout the day.  

The weather may not have been on our side, but the magnificent fundraising efforts, fantastic goals and Noel Whelan’s tremendous stories made for a brilliant day. 

We look forward to continuing our 2021/22 season in Nottingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Stoke and Glasgow in November. You can find a full list of event dates here.