Perth College UHI to host European Netball World Cup Qualifiers
Perth College UHI’s new Academy of Sport and Wellbeing is hosting the European Netball World Cup Qualifiers in the New Year, which will be the first time an International Netball event has been staged in Perth for decades.
Scotland’s national netball team, the Scottish Thistles, will be on home soil as Netball Scotland host the Qualifiers in partnership with Perth College UHI.
In January 2018, Scottish netball fans will have courtside access to one of the most exciting events in the European netball calendar. With just two spots up for grabs, fans are in for a dramatic weekend of top class netballing action as our Scots battle it out against rivals Wales and Northern Ireland for a coveted place at the Netball World Cup in Liverpool in 2019.
Dr Margaret Cook, Principal of Perth College UHI said: “We are very proud to be hosting such a prestigious event at our new Academy of Sport and Wellbeing at Perth College UHI and we are delighted to be bringing an event of this importance to the city of Perth. We look forward to hosting a memorable event, which we hope will see Scotland qualify for the World Cup in Liverpool in 2019, we also look forward to furthering our partnership with Netball Scotland.”
Netball Scotland’s Head of Performance, and Scottish Thistles Head Coach, Gail Parata said: “On the road to the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (CWG), the Scottish Thistles will use the European World Cup Qualifiers as important preparation for this major event.
“The Scottish Thistles will host Wales and Northern Ireland for the Qualifiers in Perth from 19 -21st January. Only three teams from the European region have the opportunity to qualify for the Netball World Cup (NWC) being held in Liverpool, July 2019, and as England automatically qualify as the host nation, it’s now down to the three remaining home nation teams to battle it out for the final two spots. And Scotland are planning and preparing to take one of them! It will however be a very tough challenge as both Wales and Northern Ireland are formidable opponents, so we will be calling on all of our Thistle Army supporters from across Scotland to come to Perth and help us achieve our target.
“Continuing to qualify for major events like CWG and NWC strengthens the reasons for sportscotland to continue to invest in our sport at a performance level and subsequently helps us to build on the hard work and achievements already delivered across our national performance and pathways programmes.”
This is the first time Netball Scotland have teamed up with Perth College UHI to deliver an International event, but have enjoyed great success with using the facility for District events as well as the recent inaugural Performance League.
To keep up-to-date with ticket information, please check the Perth College UHI and Netball Scotland websites.