110 children celebrate inclusive Bambini tournament at Ossecker Stadium

This week at Ossecker Stadium, it wasn't about a single result, but about a football day that aimed to give as many children as possible playing time and a sense of achievement. On Tuesday, around 110 football-enthusiastic children from Hof and the region came together for an inclusive Bambini tournament – with five rounds of play, subsequent finals, and an award ceremony in three performance classes.

Organization and Participants

The tournament was organized by the city of Hof together with Lebenshilfe Hof and Special Olympics Bavaria. On the field were students from Hof's primary and special schools – deliberately mixed and regardless of individual prerequisites. It was precisely this naturalness of togetherness that shaped the day.

Many games, clear structure, fair division

At the start, Jörg Herzig, head of the Lindenbühl School, and Burkhard Baier, responsible for schools, youth, social affairs, and sports, welcomed the participants. After that, the tournament started with tightly scheduled procedures: games were played in parallel on three fields. Each team played with five field players and a goalkeeper, with each match lasting eight minutes.

The participants consisted of students from the third and fourth grades of Hof's primary schools as well as from the fourth and fifth grades of special schools from the city and district. To enable suitable matchups among many teams in a manageable time, the Swiss system was used: after each round, the next pairings are based on previous results, so teams with similar outcomes meet more often. For the children, this means fewer "outlier" games and more matches where both sides have real chances. After five rounds, the finals followed.

Referees and Organization

Five young referees ensured sporting fairness and smooth proceedings:

• Lukas Hartmann (Schiller-Gymnasium)
• Lars Opel (Schiller-Gymnasium)
• Janis Steppan (Schule am Lindenbühl)
• Patrik Karicka (Schule am Lindenbühl)
• John Fraaß (Schule am Lindenbühl)

Ten other students from Schiller-Gymnasium supported catering and organization as part of a P-seminar – a component that often makes the difference between improvisation and reliable structure in tournaments of this size.

Inclusion as lived practice and continuation of the network

The sporting framework was clearly organized, but the real message of the tournament lay in the inclusive approach: children played together without everyday differences automatically becoming dividing lines on the field. Mayor Sebastian Auer summed up this aspiration at the event: "This tournament shows how inclusion can succeed."

The fact that such a format does not remain symbolic is also shown by the organizational foundation. The event is part of a sustainable network that was established as part of the "Host Town" project around the Special Olympics World Games 2023. In Hof, this approach now continues in a school-based tournament format – not as a one-off event, but as a repeatable model where responsibilities, helper structures, and cooperation paths are already in place. Organizational responsibility beforehand lay with the city's sports office and Lebenshilfe.

Winners in three performance classes

In the end, there were also clear sporting winners – in a division meant to create comparability. In performance group I, the Sophienschule team prevailed. In performance group II, the Bonhoefferschule team won. In performance group III, Team Moschendorf 2 took first place.

The award ceremony was conducted by Mayor Sebastian Auer and Max Kühnreich. For many children, the focus was not just on placement, but on what made this day special: lots of playing time, regulated competition, and a shared experience that made participation visible – in the stadium and beyond the tournament day.