The lad Erik van Vliet had done good. He'd given 110% in fact. It was not just that the Dutchman had secured the use of the fantastic AFC Amsterdam stadium for this, the seventh, Logica Football World Cup, replete with bar and refreshments. Nor that he had helped to organise hotel accommodation for the sixteen competing team teams arriving from seven different countries around the globe. Neither was it that he had sacrificed entertaining the crowds with his silky Jaap Stam-esque skills to spend both days in a referee's uniform. It was not even that he had personally welcomed our teams as they arrived at Amsterdam Centraal Station on Thursday. No, all this he had done superbly, but he had also organised the traditional World Cup weather - blistering sunshine, temperatures touching 30°c, and only the faintest sniff of a breeze. Just what you want when embarking on six games of football in two days. In the preferred parlance of the footballing fraternity: "the lad had played an absolute blinder!"

Seven English teams had set sail from Blighty with varying degrees of expectation. The Leatherhead and ESIS teams were not quite sure what to expect in their first tournament, but, whilst the latter struggled, Surrey's finest acquitted themselves admirably. Two victories and only a close defeat at the hands of Holland ("we had a perfectly good goal disallowed"), enabled Matt Benford's charges to look forward to a quarter-final against holders Italy on the Sunday. Sadly an upset was not on the cards, but a hard-fought 2-0 defeat against 'gli neri' was certainly no disgrace.

The two teams from Manchester will feel that they did not fulfil their potential. Perhaps they were all too exhausted after spending much effort coming up with some comedy team names - Dutch Courage and Dutch Cloggers. After beating ESIS, and losing to Leatherhead, the Courageous Mancunians needed a victory in their final group game against Holland to go through. Frustratingly, and despite a gallant effort, they could only achieve a goalless draw against last year's beaten finalists, and their campaign was over.

For the Cloggers, it was very much a tournament of two halves. Saturday saw them claim impressive victories over Holland 'B' and the England Nippers, such that a respectable 2-0 defeat to the powerful French still left them as comfortable group runners-up. Unfortunately the Cloggers' celebrations were a tad premature, and arriving late and bleary-eyed on the Sunday morning, they found their quarter-final had been awarded to Aberdeen. The Cloggers final Group victory concluded a fairly disappointing challenge from the Nippers, who after an initial 5-0 drubbing at the hands of France, had at least restored some pride with a draw against Holland 'B'.

The Football Gods had a crueller fate in store for the England Pups. Having resolutely avoided the myriad of fatal distractions offered by the city of Amsterdam in the build-up, and even organised a training session on the Friday, the Pups could only scrape a 2-1 win in their first match against Edinburgh. They were then stunned by the pace and trickery of the Dublin forwards, and defeat left the Pups needing to beat Italy, whilst hoping that the Scots could overcome the Irish. In one of the finest performances by an English international side in living memory, the Pups beat the reigning Champions 2-1, courtesy of goals from Clarke and Loriot. Then, whilst everyone else relaxed in the bar watching Liverpool wallop Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the Pups sat nervously watching the final group game. English hopes were raised when Edinburgh slipped into a 2-0 lead against Dublin, but tragically dashed as the Irish battled back and incredibly scored four goals in the final ten minutes to book their own place in the quarter-finals. Ever philosophical, Pup Supremo Simon Groom consoled himself with the thought that "at least we can go out and enjoy a quiet beer this evening!"

The England Lags had also clearly not been putting in enough hours on the prayer mat. Despite an average age of 37, emphatic victories were secured early doors against both Cork and the Czech Devils. Crucially however, they then lost to a last minute goal against Aberdeen in the group decider. England's punishment for this slip was a quarter-final against old rivals France on Sunday morning. A game of high quality between these two seeded teams saw chances missed at both ends, and, after a gruelling period of extra time, there were still no goals. So to the dreaded penalties, and not for the first time in a major International Tournament, spot-kicks proved the downfall of the Three Lions, with England skipper Grassie being the only player on either side to earn an advertising contract with Pizza Hut.

Aberdeen proved that their victory over England was no fluke by waltzing past Holland 'B' to set up a semi-final against Italy. This was a rerun of the 1998 Final when the Scots had triumphed, and was a predictably competitive game. There was little to choose between the teams until late on when Italy stole two quick goals and a place in their fourth consecutive final.

In the other semi-final, France had once again won through on penalties against hosts (and many people's pre-tournament favourites) Holland, to set up a repeat of the Euro2000 final against Italy. As in that match, France were dominant in the first half, and played the better football, despite injury ruling out their inspirational captain Philippe Soria. It was unfortunate that unlike Zidane and co, a number of the Logica France players had to leave at half time to go and catch a plane home! 'Les Bleus' battled on gamely, but finally a mistake by their right-back let in an opposing forward for a breakaway goal, and the Italians had secured a hat-trick of World Cup triumphs.

Erik van Vliet completed his weekend's work by presenting the Logica World Cup trophy to the Italian captain amidst a barrage of popping champagne corks. Erik could confirm that the hopes expressed by Logica BV Managing Director Peter van Es when he officially opened the tournament on Saturday morning - that we'd see some excellent games of football played in a spirit of true sportsmanship - had more than been realised. And despite the aching and sun-burnt limbs of the 250 or so players who had made Amsterdam 2001 such a huge success, it is a fair bet that the thoughts of many were already turning to next year's tournament in Prague.