Courtesy:
New Zealand Football AssociationFutsal tournament a female firstThe growth of futsal in New Zealand gets another boost this weekend with the first ever female national futsal tournament in Wellington.
October 21, 2011The growth of futsal in New Zealand gets another boost this weekend with the first ever female national futsal tournament in Wellington.
The inaugural NZF-Futsal Girls and Women’s tournament takes place in the capital’s new ASB Sports Centre in Kilbirnie, and NZF Futsal Development Manager Dave Payne hopes it is the catalyst for more national and local competitions.
“With the growth of both futsal and women’s football in New Zealand, events like this could spark regular female-only leagues in more cities around the country.
“In the senior competition, we’ve got eight teams from Wellington, Whangarei, Rotorua, Auckland and Christchurch this weekend so the interest is definitely there, and it’s only going to grow,” Payne said.
“The long term vision is to have a regular women’s national futsal league to mirror the men’s competition and establish a Futsal Ferns national team.”
In addition to the senior competition which culminates in a final early on Sunday afternoon, five teams from Wellington will contest the under 15 division.
“Futsal in the Wellington is probably growing the faster than any other region the country and they’ve already got some solid league structures in place for girls and women.
Canterbury has also got a good league already and are sending two strong Mainland teams in the senior competition, and while we expect the Auckland team to be contenders as well it’s especially pleasing to see teams from some of the smaller cities competing to give it a truly national flavour.”
View
the drawsPosted by
Luca Ranocchiari -->
luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com
