FORGET Italy, Inverclyde youngsters have been battling for glory in the Kids' World Cup.

The event ran all last week at Battery Park in Greenock with children split into teams of six-a-side and given a country to represent.

Australia, Sweden, France, Germany, Holland, Ghana, England, Italy, the USA and Scotland took part.

They played a round-robin tournament, friendly matches and, finally, a knock-out World Cup event.

In the final, played on Friday, Italy beat the USA on penalties and the winning goal was scored by Melissa Campopiano, aged nine.

Demand from children between six and 12 for the football week was so high that the teams had to be expanded from five to six-a-side.

The sports week was organised by Harry Turner, duty manager at Battery Park. He said: `The emphasis was on fun. It was a tremendous week. The kids all seemed to really enjoy it and we have had great feedback. We hope to build on it and run a similar programme in the October holiday but using the Champions League format.` The Champions League event is scheduled to run from Monday 16 to Friday 20 October. Forms are already available from the Battery Park pavilion.

Mr Turner said: `The World Cup event was a great success and the good weather added to it. It was superb.` There were 16 teams in the competition and they played group stages before the bottom two in each group were knocked out.

Then the final eight went on to play on Friday, finals day.

The final game went to a penalty shoot-out and the children were stunned when their result proved to be an omen as Italy went on to beat France on penalties to lift the real World Cup on Sunday.

The children whose teams had been knocked out went along for finals day to cheer on their friends and the atmosphere was fantastic as the competition came to a close.