PEF Championship Football

On 3 June 2009 we kicked off the inaugural PEF Championship Football Tournament at the David Beckham Academy in London. Twenty teams drawn from the private equity world, as well as young people from our newest portfolio charity, Vital Regeneration, competed to raise £32,000 to help more disadvantaged children and young people.

Sudden death penalties ruled the day in the closely contested Cup competition. In the semi-finals, FC Bridgepoint dispatched early favourites, young peoples’ team, Vital Vipers, taking advantage of 'ringer' Ray Parlour's temporary absence from the pitch. However, despite FC Bridgepoint's earlier success at the penalty spot, CGSH United (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP) were to prove the better team at finding the back of the net in the final to emerge worthy winners. Captain Andrew Tingle commented “It was a great evening and for an excellent cause, and despite the heat the guys worked hard to put on an entertaining final.”

In the Plate competition, BVCA FC was delighted to beat Apax Athletic FC 3-1 in the semi-finals, with key player Nathan Williams commenting "That was the one game we were up for. Apax was the scalp we really wanted!" They went on to beat TowerBrook 2-1 in the final.

Shaks Ghosh, Chief Executive of PEF, said: "We'd like to say a big thank you to all the teams who took part in our first PEF Championship Football Tournament and who made it such a great success. Congratulations to CGSH United and BVCA FC! However, the real winners from the evening are the disadvantaged children and young people at the charities PEF supports who will benefit from the money raised."