The 2008 Barca Fives marked our men's tournament debut in Spain. Whilst the tournament was our Spanish debut, the Barca Fives was not a debut competition for some of our participating teams. eurofootballfives.com welcomed back some eurofootballfives.com veterans in the Cobalt Silver Foxes (Krakow Trophy 2007, Prague Trophy 2008 and Krakow Trophy 2008). The Cobalt Silver Foxes were making their 4th appearance and following their success in April by winning the 2008 Krakow Trophy Plate were eager for more success.

The 2008 Barca Fives also saw the Red Light Runners of Scotland bidding to become the first team to win two eurofootballfives.com events in a season. Also in the 2008 Krakow Trophy, they lifted the overall Cup title and would be strong contenders again this time around for sure.

The list of successful return teams does not end there! Only 4 months earlier, the Prisoners travelled to Prague for the 2008 Prague Masters and came away claiming success in the Plate competition. The Prisoners were hungry for more success and were expected to be a powerful force as they were unlucky not to progress to the Cup competition in that tournament.

DHL Prague were also competing in their 4th eurofootballfives.com tournament and their first outside the Czech Republic. . DHL Prague's best achievement so far was finishing Runner-Up in the 2007 Prague Trophy last October. They would be looking to go one better in Barcelona .

The 2008 Barca Fives saw three teams from the 2007 Prague Trophy come face-to-face. As well as DHL Prague and Cobalt Silver Foxes, the Yorvik Blades were competing in Barcelona for their second crack at European glory. They narrowly lost out 1-0 in the Plate Semi-Final to Sparta CSF on that occasion.

In addition to our valued returning teams we welcomed Hanson Vets, Hanson Old Boys, Bristol Bridge Supporters and 3 Lions FC who were all making their debuts.

We also welcomed our first teams to enter from Spain with Barcelona Adventure, United , Uxama, Rapid Bosco Navas and Q Detectives .

Format

The first phase of the 2008 Barca Fives was to be decided on a group basis. There were three groups with 5 teams in each group. Each team played each other team in their group once and therefore 4 group games. After which, depending on position, they wouldl progress to the Cup or Plate competition.

The teams finishing 1st and 2nd in each group plus the two best 3rd placed teams would progress to the Cup competition. This was to be played as a knock-out phase with Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final.

The remaining 3rd placed team plus the teams finishing 4th and 5th in each group will progress to the Plate competition. This was also to be played as a knock-out phase with Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final.