Courtesy: New Zealand FA


Youth teams excel at Craig Foster Futsal Cup

All three age group teams from New Zealand Football made the semi-finals at the Craig Foster Futsal Cup on the Gold Coast last weekend.

The Craig Foster Challenge is the marquee event in the Queensland Futsal Calendar.

The tournament is a representative regional competition with representative teams from South East Queensland and Far North NSW competing and in 2017, the organisers extended the invitation to futsal teams across all age categories throughout Oceania and further abroad.

Auckland Football Federations’ – AFF East City Futsal beat every team in the U-14 competition, and seemed favoured to go on and win the tournament before they were knocked out in their semi-final against a Peninsula team who went on to lift the trophy.

Click here for video content from the Craig Foster Futsal Cup

In the U-19 competition, AFF – East City and Central Football’s – Hawke’s Bay were also impressive, both finishing second in their respective pool but both teams were also undone in the semi-finals.

In the Men’s competition, AFF – East City and WaiBOP Futsal also found themselves on opposite sides of the draw. Neither team were able to win when it counted, with both sides narrowly missing out on semi-final berths.

“With the addition of futsal to the Youth Olympics in Argentina next year New Zealand Football will be launching our U18 National Futsal Teams in 2017. The 2017 Craig Foster Futsal Cup has served as a great addition for youth players targeting the Youth Olympic qualification tournament later this year,” said Dave Payne, the Head of Operations at New Zealand Football.

“On top of local leagues, the NZ Secondary Schools Futsal Champs, the Youth National Futsal Champs and the National Futsal League, this tournament has provided invaluable international experience to a really exciting group of young Kiwi futsal players.”



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com