Football in Germany may not have gone to plan for the national team in the summer but a Pars fans team showed them how it's done by reaching a tournament final.

The Dunfermline Athletic Football Fans In Training (FFIT) team travelled to the country that hosted UEFA Euro 2024 to take part in a six-a-side competition for a second successive year.

Held at the Liga '20 hall, close to Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen's BayArena, the six-a-side Fußballfans in Training event saw supporters of 15 German clubs also take part.

It was a second successive year that participants from Dunfermline's FFIT programme, which is open to anyone aged between 35-65 with a waist size of at least 38 inches, have been invited to Germany to compete.

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In 2023, the Pars won the event, which was held in Dresden, but this time around were narrowly beaten in the final by fans of Dynamo Dresden.

Stewart Roxburgh, a member of the Dunfermline Athletic FFIT who took part, said: "It was a good weekend.

"It would've been nice to go the extra step and win the final, but it wasn't quite to be.

"The way that the Germans received us, and the hospitality, was fantastic, especially because of the Euros and the way Scotland were received out there. We were still getting 'No Scotland No Party' from groups of people everywhere we went!

"They couldn't do enough for us."

Joining the Pars fans and those from Dynamo Dresden in competing were followers of Bayer Leverkusen, FC Köln, FC Nürnberg, FSV Mainz 05, Arminia Bielefeld, Eintracht Braunschweig, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Ingolstadt 04, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hamburg SV, Holstein Kiel, Karlsruher SC, SC Paderborn, and VfL Bochum.

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Dunfermline won all eight of their preliminary round, Group A, fixtures against SC Paderborn, Eintracht Braunschweig, Holsten Kiel, Hamburg, FC Nürnberg, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Mainz, and Arminia Bielefeld, to progress to the semi-finals.

There, they defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 5-2, before losing the final by a 2-1 scoreline.

Stewart continued: "We got a great cheer when we went up to pick up the trophy for finishing second - even bigger than Dresden, who won!

"We gave Dresden a guard of honour and it was all done in the right spirit.

"The guys had been the year before and won the tournament. We'd been the first international team to have been invited and were invited back.

"Special credit must go to Mark Eglington, who done all the organisation, and the elder statesman of the FFIT side, Kenny Blythe, who is still playing and doing his thing at 66 years young!"

The FFIT programme, delivered by the Pars Foundation, the charity that runs community initiatives on behalf of Dunfermline Athletic, and the SPFL Trust, takes place for free over a 12-week period, encouraging individuals to learn about healthy eating and living while sharing a common love of football.

Ten years ago, a crew from German television channel, ZDF, travelled to East End Park to film the Pars FFIT participants in action, and learn more about the success of their programme, as clubs in Germany began looking at the initiative with a move to adopting it.

The Pars FFIT team are also participating in an 11-a-side Scottish league, of which they are top, and to find out more about the FFIT programme, visit the Pars Foundation website, or www.spfltrust.org.uk/ffit.