Tallinn girls' football tournament postponed over 'geopolitical fears'
An international girls' football tournament due to be hosted in Tallinn in June has been postponed, following cancellations due to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The Tallinn Girls Cup had been due to take place June 25–28 in Tallinn on the football pitches of the A Le Coq Arena, the Estonian national stadium.
Tournament organizer Innar Hunt told ERR News the competition followed a successful showing by FC Flora's girls' team at the recent IberCup tournament in Portugal. The girls had seen off AC Milan, Sevilla FC and OL Lyoness no less.
For the first time, an Estonian team had beaten an elite-level club, the Swedish academy IF Brommapojkarna, as well as U.S. club Washington YS. Even then, however, teams from Japan and some other Asian countries had opted not to travel to the IberCup, amid the worsening situation in the Middle East.
The hope had been that the Tallinn tournament – for girls aged 13-15 – would still be going ahead, and clubs from European countries including Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Cyprus and the U.K. started registering to take part in February. Even clubs from further afield, places like Singapore and Dubai, considered participating in the Tallinn Girls Cup, Hunt said.
Around seven or eight teams had registered before things started unraveling, as Hunt put it, with the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and, much closer to home in Estonia, drone strikes on the Russian ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk.
"Teams were getting responses from parents. They said this was not an easy decision to make as their girls had been looking forward to the competition, but they listed a growing sense of uncertainty and safety concerns for children traveling at this time," he said.
Another factor was rising ticket prices due to the geopolitical situation and a smaller number of flights and carriers on offer.
Hunt declined to state exactly which clubs had pulled out, but noted one "polite call to a team in Germany" had ended with the tentative question "is the situation with Russia really that bad?"
Hunt noted that parents in other countries, even as close by as Sweden, may have had heightened feelings over reading media reports about the deteriorating situation internationally. Just in Estonia alone, several drones straying into Estonian territory, including one that damaged a power station chimney, made the international press.
"Estonia is a safe and well-developed country, over 30 years since the end of the Soviet occupation, but some of the Scandinavian and other Western countries can be in something of a security bubble, and as both the wars reached more acute phases, most ordinary people, parents etc., got an exaggerated view of the situation," Hunt added.
Not all the teams cried off, in fact. For instance, a team from Cyprus may still make the journey in June, even with the tournament postponed, and Hunt said a football camp may take the competition's place. A team from Finland may also attend this.
As to when the tournament - not affiliated with UEFA or FIFA but organized by a team passionate about girls' football and with the cooperation of the Estonian FA, the Tallinn City Government, and FC Flora - might go ahead, Hunt said it all hinges on the global situation.
"Will it happen in 2027? If the global situation eases, we are absolutely looking forward to organizing the tournament in summer 2027. But if wars and uncertainty continue, it's very difficult to plan a tournament for young athletes as international as this", he added.
As far as Estonia's girls' football development goes, Hunt noted that those passionate about girls' football have their eye on the 2033 European championship, where they dream to have Estonia's women's team represented.
--
Editor: Helen Wright
