For a free pdf download of this resource click here
Blindfold taste test
A game so tense that the contestants literally can’t watch, just like England during their inevitable defeat on penalties.
One of the real opportunities of the World Cup is discovering the joys in the worldwide family of football, and making learning opportunities out of those lesser-known countries. (Fun facts about Ecuador anybody?) Why not combine this with the age-old winner of youth group activities - food!
For this game you will need to identify about half-a-dozen countries competing at the World Cup, and their representative foods. For example, Germany - some form of spicy bratwurst, Mexico - tacos, Japan - sushi, Greece - baklava, USA - hamburgers, Switzerland – Toblerone; five minutes on Google will provide plenty of ideas. Fined sufficient quantities of these foods to allow the whole group to try a bit, as well as providing each member of your group with a blindfold and complete list of countries competing in the World Cup.
Explain to your group that this is a blindfold taste test. Once everyone is blindfolded bring each player a bite-size portion of a food from one of the countries - and once they have eaten it, they have to mark on their list of countries which one they think that food represented. Get them all seated at tables, and make sure blindfolds are on before putting a sample of each food in front of each player. Allow them to take blindfolds off in between each ‘course’ to mark their selection on the list of countries, but make sure everyone is blindfolded before bringing out the next selection of cuisine. At the end announce what the countries and foods were, and see who got the most correct answers.
If this game was competing at the World Cup it would be: Uruguay - potential champions given the right circumstances.
Skills challenge
A game that bares no similarity to the very popular ‘Top Golf’. Well, no similarity if their lawyers are reading...
It wouldn’t be a World Cup themed game without a classic (!) bizarre golf / football hybrid. The simple premise of this game is for the players to score points by kicking the football into particular containers - the smaller the containers, the more points they score. Divide your group into teams - trying to mix-up the skill levels and competitiveness - and allow each player turns at kicking a foam ball into the targets which you will need to set up in advance.
Mark a line for your players to kick the balls at the targets from, and using a number of containers of differing size (e.g. small paddling pool, bucket, washing up bowl, mixing bowl) secure them to the ground so they won’t topple over, making sure that they are spread out with a couple of feet between each target, and with the larger (and easier) targets closer to the kicking point. Label each target with the number of points available (five for the easiest, up to 50 for the hardest) and get the teams to take it in turns at trying to kick a (foam) football into one of the targets. Make sure that each player has an equal number of turns, four or five ideally, but dependent on how big your group is make sure you don’t have lots of people just standing round doing nothing. Keep track of the scores as you proceed, and let the final few competitors know what they need to score to win.
If this game was competing at the World Cup it would be: South Korea - good for a bit of entertainment, but never going to win it this time round.
Name that tune
Football is the best form of education.
Music and football aren’t natural bedfellows (just think of Gazza’s version of ‘Fog on the Tyne’ if you need proof) - but there’s nothing like a good national anthem to get the blood stirring. For a quick, non-physical game simply download clips of the national anthems of as many competing nations at the World Cup as you like (www.nationalanthems.info is useful) - and then play short clips one at a time to your group - getting them to write down which nation’s anthem they think it is. You may not want to do all 32 countries, so try to pick a range of familiar and leftfield selections. To make it more difficult, don’t give your group a list of the countries competing - or do so, but only in the form of their flags.
If this game was competing at the World Cup it would be: Belgium - clichéd preconceptions might suggest a lack of entertainment, but possibly a surprise package.
THREE-LEGGED FIVE-A-SIDE
It’s football Jim, but not as we know it.
For any compilation of World Cup themed games, an actual game of football in some form is surely needed. But not everyone likes ‘The Beautiful Game’, so let’s mix it up a bit. Turn your hall into a five-a-side arena by placing tables on their sides around the edges of the room with a gap at each end for goals, and get your group into randomly allocated pairs. Tie the pairs together at the ankle (like in three-legged races) and then get the pairs into teams. Depending on the size of your playing arena you’ll probably want three pairs per team. Get the teams to play each other in short matches of two minutes, allowing no goalies, or above head-height passes / shots.
If this game was competing at the World Cup it would be: Spain - requiring a lot of technical skill, but not always the most entertaining to watch.
Jimmy Young is training to be a vicar in Nottingham and is a regular contributor to Premier Youthwork.
