In the glorious Birmingham sunshine, a team from Oxygen Finance took part in Business Fives; an intercompany 5-aside football tournament raising money for charities across the UK.
Oxygen Finance joined 23 other teams on 5th September in a bid to be crowned Business Fives Birmingham Champions. The team, expertly managed and coached by Technical Delivery Lead, Alistdair Smith, were enthusiastic and despite this being their first tournament together, put in a strong performance to support a good cause.
After conceding goals in the first couple of games, the team found their feet and with Alex Bryan making some key saves and some power sprints from Harry Handsaker, fought through to the Europa Conference League Quarter Finals, where they won 1-0. Alas, their dreams of being crowned ECL Champions were put to rest with a 1-0 loss to Armac Martin in the semi-final.
Despite closely missing out there were still celebrations to come as Oxygen Finance’s Madison Allen was presented with the trophy for Female Player of the Tournament – a thoroughly deserved win.
The event saw 339 goals scored in 73 matches. Congratulations to the overall event winners, Auctus Management Group, winning 2-0 in the final.
Our team raised an impressive £535 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity. The funds will help the charity to find innovative approaches to treating some of the sickest children in the UK, aiming to make the hospital feel just like home, and to help find new ways to treat and cure childhood diseases. Oxygen Finance matched employee donations via its charitable matching scheme.
As well as raising valuable funds for charity, the event has spurred the team on, with a regular football social now launched to bring colleagues from across the UK together more frequently (maybe giving us a fighting chance for next time… ) and becoming kit sponsor for Bury Foundation FC u16s. 😊
About Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity
At Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, we believe there’s always more we can do for our sick kids and that’s why we will always strive to do more for our patients and families. It’s our mission to raise the vital funds needed to make a real difference to all who use our hospital.
Your support empowers us to take innovative approaches to treating some of the sickest children in the UK. Your fundraising enables us to make our hospital feel just like home. Your donations are helping us to find new ways to treat and cure childhood diseases.
