The Pitch was an inter-disciplinary football challenge for high school students in China. It was organised by the British Council in partnership with Coventry University and with the support of Tottenham Hotspur.
The Pitch challenge aimed to highlight the innovative courses and diverse methods of teaching that are on offer in UK education to potential students, their influencers, and the general public. The Pitch challenge focused on a popular subject and presented an interesting educational approach to that subject.
The British Council invited 20 high schools teams to take part in the challenge from across China. Coventry University as the developer of the challenge designed the tasks, developed the online study platform and when the competition began offered day to day tutorial guidance to the Chinese students through the platform.
The competition took place in two parts. In the first round the teams were asked to deal with the challenges that professional football clubs would encounter including shirt sponsorship, home stadium development and making new signings online, in direct contact with Coventry Universities sports management specialists.The results of the first round tasks were delivered and assessed by UK professionals via the online study platform. Five teams were shortlisted from the first round to progress to the live final in Beijing to present their work and face questions from a board of UK sports management professionals including:
Prof. Simon Chadwick from Coventry University;
Fran Jones, International Development Manager of Tottenham Hotspur;
Phil Carling, Global Head of Football at Octagon;
Rowan Simons, Chairman at China ClubFootball and
Martin Gomme, Director of Regional Strategy Project Management, British Council China.
The final winning team, Yali Middle School of Hunan Province (Team members: Zhu Weichen, Wang Yayi, Zhang Jiahua, Wen Xiaohui), was awarded a unique UK cultural and educational trip, including visits to UK education institutions and football clubs.
The winning team will write a Diary and blogs covering the following topics on weekly basis in the build up to their trip to the UK.
First week: review of the competition
After the final in the Linglong pogada at the very heart of the Olympic green, we were captivated by the anticipation of our trip to the UK. We were exciting to know what we would see and where we would visit…
Second week: Looking forward to the exciting football match and feeling of visiting the UK.
We all know UK is the home of football and is also THE real world leader in football, we are now getting the chance to go to the UK to watch a real football match. It is beyond our wildest dreams to be able to visit the UK and see a potential title deciding match!!
Third Week: The Chinese Pitch Team and the Thailand Pitch team will take on, their former judges, who are you going to support?
During the week of the UK trip, us and the Thai winning team of the Pitch will have to face a challenge. We will be divided into different teams with the former judges from Tottenham Hotspurs and Octagon Sports management and then take on the judges at their own game!!
Fourth Week: the exciting UK trip
We can’t wait for our trip to the UK!
We’ll be taking part in a celebratory of international day organised by Coventry University, where we’ll get to meet other international students currently studying in the UK and experience a little of UK education’s renowned student life!!
Another of the highlights of the trip will be when we join the The Pitch Thailand winners in competing in a mini-task set by the very people who used to be the judges! WE’ll be taking on former judges from Tottenham Hotspur and Octagon in this surprise mini-task and hopefully have the chance to teach them a thing or two!!
Apart from this what will we be doing? Below is just a selection of what we have been told so far!!
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
