Papal Plate victors: Croatia

Croatia are the champions of the first ever PAPAL PLATE World Youth Day Soccer Tournament after defeating Australia in the inaugural Grand Final at Sydney University No.1 Oval on the Thursday of WYD week.

Almost 4,000 people attended the PAPAL PLATE Preliminaries and Finals which were held on the Tuesday morning and the Thursday evening following Pope Benedict’s into Sydney. 

The competition featured 24 teams, the final 8 quarter-finalists being Croatia, Australia, Italy, Austria, Brazil, USA, Poland and Lebanon with Peru, Holland, Korea, New Zealand, France, Germany, Ecuador, Colombia, Canada, East Timor and a few combined teams being eliminated in the preliminary rounds.
 
Croatia defeated Australia 1-0 in the Grand Final after they knocked out Italy in their semi final.  Australia defeated Austria in the second semi final before being overcome by Croatia in the final game of the tournament.
 
The winner of the inaugural Wojtyla Medal for Player of the Tournament was presented to Mikael an outstanding young footballer from Austria who made his mark on the tournament despite not even playing in the Grand Final.  The Wojtyla Medal was named in honour of Karol Wojtyla – Pope John Paul II – who was a soccer goalkeeper before entering the Seminary in Poland.
 
Meanwhile Australia defeated the UK in the final of the PAPAL PLATE WYD Debating Competition which was held in the Sydney University Great Hall on Wednesday evening.  The topic of the final debate was “That God is Dead,” with 3 debaters from Campion College representing Australia overcoming the UK who were represented by 3 students from Oxford.  In the final debate, the UK took the Affirmative and Australia took the negative. 
 
Earlier in the week, Campion College had defeated Sydney University to represent Australia whilst the UK defeated the USA who had been represented by a number of students from Seton Hall.  The Seton Hall students had been undertaking a pre-WYD course at Campion College the week before WYD08.  The topics of the preliminary debates were “That the youth should have a representative in the conclave,” and “That World Youth Day is an oxymoron.”
 
"We are delighted that the PAPAL PLATE WYD Competitions in both Soccer and Debating have been so popular at this year's World Youth Day," said Anthony McCarthy the Coordinator of Carnivale Christi, the WYD International Young Adult Festival.
 
"All in all over 5,000 pilgrims have participated in Carnivale Christi and the PAPAL PLATE competitions played a major part in ensuring the success of the festival," continued McCarthy.
 
It is hoped that both the PAPAL PLATE Debating and Soccer will continue at the next WYD which will be held in Madrid, Spain in 2011.  The Papal Plate competitions and Carnivale Christi 2008 were co-hosted by ACSA/ACYA, Campion College and Artes Christi Australia.