Welcome to the latest edition of our European Veterans' tournament. This edition was special in that it marked our debut in Portugal's second city – the stunning city of Porto. Our early Veterans tournament debuted in 2013 and proved so popular we added a late summer Veterans event to our schedule in 2017. So far, our winners of this event have been:

2017 Lisbon: Talhos Mariete (Por)

2018 Mallorca: Policia Local (Spa)

2019 Budapest: Elcombe Old Boys (Eng)

2022 Krakow: Alea Iacta Est (Pol)

2023 Barcelona: FC Poloboc (Mda)

We were delighted to welcome teams from England, France, Poland and Portugal to challenge for the title including 6 teams making a welcome return to action having already competed in our events before.

First up was Community Sauna versus 3 Lions FC. Both teams had competed in our events before and we will preview them in greater detail as we progress with this report. In the early kick-off it was Community Sauna who got off to a fast start with Max Cooke on target for the men in burgundy shirts. It got even better for Community Sauna when Ed Brown doubled the advantage and they were well on their way to an opening 3 points. The game was not done and dusted yet as 3 Lions FC struck back thanks to a goal from Muhammad Chilwan. It was 2-1 at half-time but there was to be no comeback for the 3 Lions.

After the change of ends, Ed Brown scored his second of the game to make it 3-1. Max Cooke then went on to complete a fine personal hat-trick to round off a comprehensive 5-1 victory. It was the perfect start of the day for Community Sauna.

The 2024 Porto Veterans Tournament was to be decided on a league basis. There was to be one league of 8 teams. Each team would play each other team in their group once and therefore 7 group games. At the end of the group each team would have a final placing with the league leaders crowned 2024 Porto Veterans champions.

The next fixture in the opening round was G.D. Leoes da Guarda versus JK Silvertown. The former were on debut in our tournaments so we wish the Portuguese team a warm welcome to the fold. The latter were making a fifth appearance in our events . JK Silvertown were in action at the 2023 Barcelona Veterans Fives. They got off to a steady start with two 1-1 draws against AFC Blue Boys and Atletico Funk. A 2-0 loss to Bure Park Seniors followed before a first win of the day (4-0) against TNF. There was a 1-0 loss to Beijing Rockets next before finishing on a high with a 3-1 win over Lucanos Locos. They qualified for the Plate where they defeated Mitre FC Vets 4-0 to set-up a Semi-Final against Dickie Dogs. They won this tie 2-0 to set up a repeat match against Lucanos Locos. They did the double over their Polish opposition but this time by a narrower 1-0 margin to lift the Plate title.

They would be a team to watch again this year and began well here with Alan Sanders scoring their first goal of the tournament to give his side a 1-0 lead. After the break JK Silvertown made the game safe with Alan Sanders bagging his second of the match and Chris Wright opening his personal account. Final score, 0-3.

The final two teams to get underway were Nothing Toulouse of France against The Maulers of England. The French team were on debut and so we would get our first glimpse of them in action shortly. The Maulers is the sister squad of The Warriors in the SuperVets category. The Maulers came into existence for the 2022 Lisbon Tournament as The Warriors travelling party expanded. Although the team came into being in 2022 some of the players had been involved in our events since 2015 so were experienced at this level.

We witnessed an evenly contested first half with nothing to separate the two teams. The second half kicked off with the teams still on par at 0-0. The deadlock was broken by Nothing Toulouse and their Porto-based loan signing Michael Hawthorne (who played for TNF at last year's 2023 Barcelona Veterans). 1-0 became 2-0 as Sabri Messai doubled the lead.

The game was not over yet with Chris D'Arcy reducing the deficit to 2-1 for The Maulers. The game was back in the balance but Nothing Toulouse had enough in the tank to preserve their lead until the full-time whistle and complete a debut win in our tournaments.