In both exciting and rather disappointing news the 3v3 Street Football World Cup took place in Latvia between the 16th and 17th of June. This is a huge deal for street football as it shows that there is an appetite for a high end competitive scene with Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Spain, France, Georgia, Hungary, Belgium, India, Ukraine, Korea, Japan, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands all competing to be crowned world 3v3 Champions. No doubt that this event is a game changer for the landscape of professional Street Football, and clearly a massive undertaking from the Ghetto Games team. That’s the good news, but as usual let’s address the issues. Let’s get this one out of the way…. Where were SSC and why weren’t we in Latvia competing as Australia. Ghetto Games did invite us, however we were unable to make the Journey to Latvia this year, but in 2024 we will be in attendance. The main issue I have surrounding this world cup event is; unless you were involved in the event or lived next door to the stadium where it was hosted, you’d have no idea it was on. I know this is the first major World Cup that Ghetto Games has hosted, and by the looks of it they did a great job, but the street footballers involved, the teams involved, and street football influencers have done very little to build hype around the event. That’s the problem with the sport, there are no major independent outlets and publications that act as a hub for news around Street Football which keeps everyone informed, which is a shame when great events like this are put on. Basically this event was a “blink and you missed it” event, which is a real shame and unfair on the organizers.
Granted this is the first real iteration of a tournament of this magnitude you can't expect everything to run smoothly or be marketed perfectly. As long as it was a success in terms of involvement then I assume it will be a bigger and better tournament in 2024, growing each and every year. I wish more people knew about this tournament, but that comes with time, and SSC will make sure to do their part in 2024.
In terms of the top 3:
1st: Pannahouse from Denmark
2nd: Inter Klassheim from Austria
3rd: Kavkaz Connection from Azerbaijan.
