Manchester Business School hosted its annual International Football Challenge for MBAs again this year, bringing together over 100 MBA students from Oxford Said, Lancaster University Management School, Cambridge Judge, Edinburgh, Warwick and of course Manchester.

The competition was intense, with the Manchester team losing in the final round during penalty kicks to… Oxford Said, the team who took the title last year!

Additionally, the top scoring player and the best goalie of the overall tournament were awarded bragging rights as well as tickets to Manchester City's next game (Manchester City being the city's other great, though somewhat less famous, football club!)

“A big reason why people come here is because they want to experience Manchester football,” said Nicola Bertazzoni, Manchester MBA  and the tournament organizer, said. “It’s completely in line with the spirit of the city.”

The tournament didn’t just get bigger and higher-stakes this year. A girl-friendly game was added to the competition, with over 20 female MBA students participating. Manchester student Monica Rashkin played in the game and hopes to expand it to a full female tournament during next year’s International Football Challenge.

Rashkin and Bertazzoni have set high goals for next year’s competition already: not only are they looking to recruit more female players, but also want to reach out to more business school students in Asia and the US (where Rashkin is from).

They are also looking for sponsors for next year. They've already lined up Vincent Kompany, the Belgian footballer who is captain of Manchester City, and a student on Manchester's Executive MBA, to appear in a few recruitment brochures!

Sadly, due to his insurance policy, Kompany said he wouldn’t be able to actually play in next year’s competition though. But if he could, it’d be fair to say Manchester would take the title next year!