Photgraphy Copyright Tiago Merlot

by Tiago Merlot

The Helsinki Rush
I always knew England could make the final but considering the form of Sweden, Germany and the way France looked in a couple of games I thought it would be a struggle.

Low and behold they did make it and considering footballgirl's first language is English I fly back to watch the game. Thats right just watch the game, no pictures or work for the first time in 2 years.

Getting there was a rush as tickets for the flight and hotels were dissappearing every second...really. I got the train to the airport in the middle of the night and with some glorious girls who were also feeling the effects of a late night.

It was a loooooong train journey but we entertained ourselves with the camera and talk of book publishing. I could not even dare to sleep, fearing I would miss the airport.

 

Holiday Inn
Slept throughout the entire flight and made it to Helsinki as fresh as a new born baby. Without the screaming and being naked part! First things first find a hotel. The final is tommorow and the sun is shinning but tonight I know I'll be physically breaking down in need of some sleep.

I went to the local 'trade' university and asked if tehre were any hotels closeby. Unprofessional I know but a friend of mine working for German tv told me 90% of hotels were booked up ( there was a trade fair in Helsinki ).

Thankfully the first person I met was also a hotel hospitality student. Great!

So we found a room and he went to work. I felt like I should do soemthing to help but he loved doing 'room searches' so I just sat there making calls to friends and Anja who all had rooms.

The price of hotels would go up 50euros after 5 minutes?? So in the end we walked around the block to the local Holiday Inn.

 

 

Players, meetings and food
To my surprise the first person I saw after I booked in was German midfielder Simone Laudehr. Talked a little, a late birthday gift and wished her well for the final ( she scored ).

Obviously there is work to be done. The WPS American league has a draft coming up, the German season is about to start in a couple of weeks and there are comapnies interested in female football, so next on the list is to find somewhere to hold meetings.

Found 3 restuarants and used the hotel but before that it was off to talk to Finnish radio at the Olympic stadium and watch Germany practice. Folllowed by England but did not have time to watch them.

The meetings went well it was great to see these people here for the final. The focus is not on the final but how these companies can enter the female football world and align their brands with our beautiful sport. It helps though if the game is great.

In terms of the food..huh Well I had fries 4 times in the space of 3 hours. A couple of steaks and salads and 2 languages spoken.

London Tonight
Meetings over, hotel room booked and no luggae to haul around I took some time out to make some calls to people coming over tommorow ( the day of the final ).
A tv crew comes up to me and I get asked to do an extended piece for English evening programme ' London Tonight.

Its always great to do tv work and promote the footballgirl world. Plus I spent some time with camerman talking shots and angles!! Just don't get my milkshake in the shot! ha,ha..

 

 

hacks, football and footballgirls
The rest of the evening was spent with other journalists relaxing and talking about football and other stuff over dinner. We also got to watch England play Croatia. That was fun even though it was incredibly loud and I was tired.

Then it was off to the hotel to chill-out with some players who sadly were knocked out already but still made it out to watch the final and or do some tv work.

We spent a couple of hours talking about football and showed them some commercials we had made for footabllgirl.com The highlight of the day considering it was quite late ( 2 am ) and I had not slept for 2 days.

Tommorow the final.

Ciao!

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of footballgirl or www.footballgirl.com