Wembley Cup wows thousands of kids as VAR trialled for first time in England

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Vaishali Bhardwaj7 October 2017

There were no signs of paper planes or unhappy football fans at Wembley on Saturday as the annual EE Wembley Cup saw thousands of children flock to the national stadium to see some of the best YouTube football influencers take on legends of the game - including Steven Gerrard and David James.

The Wembley Cup is an annual charity competition organised by popular YouTuber Spencer Owen - who boasts of 1.9 million subscribers - in which his Hashtag United team take on another featuring former players and online stars.

This year, in front of over 32,000 fans at Wembley, Owen's team played a side assembled by F2Freestylers Jeremy Lynch and Billy Wingrove called 'Tekkers Town' in a game that also saw Gerrard, James, William Gallas, Emile Heskey and Robbie Fowler dust off their boots and take to the pitch.

Like Owen, Lynch and Wingrove have a huge following on YouTube, with more than 6 million subscribers watching their regular football skills videos online.

While giving kids the chance to see their favourite YouTubers in action in the flesh, the Wembley Cup also provided the opportunity for Video Assistant Referees (VARs) to be trialled in England for the first time.

The system allows for clear errors relating to game-changing moments such as goals, penalty decisions, straight red cards and mistaken identities to be reviewed by an assistant video referee before officials have the chance to either keep or change their original decision.

This year's Wembley Cup also demonstrated the appetite for online streaming - with the match being shown live on YouTube just days after Facebook refused to rule out entering into the bidding for Premier League rights.

The match itself saw Owen's Hashtag United, champions for the past two years, retain their crown with a 6-1 win over Tekkers Town as £2 of every ticket sold was donated to Sport Relief to help raise more than £60,000 for charity.

To view the last episode in the EE Wembley Cup online series and watch footage of the match, head to www.ee.co.uk/wembleycup

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