Football Federation Victoria have announced a fun initiative aimed at getting more people playing football, declaring this weekend to be footy trade-in weekend.
This Saturday and Sunday February 14 and 15, the first 2,000 people that hand in their old Aussie Rules footy at one of four Sportsmart locations in Melbourne (Moorabbin, Casey, Northcote, and Kilsyth) can swap it for a real football.
The initiative was announced on Tuesday night on SEN 1116's World of Football program with Mark Fine, Michael Zappone, and David Davutovic, with FFV CEO Peter Gome saying the idea was a 'bit of fun', born out of the need to continue the momentum from the Socceroos' AFC Asian Cup success.
"It was fabulous to see the Socceroos win the Asian Cup. The tournament captured the imagination of Australians young and old and we saw 650,000 people come through the gates across all matches.
"In Melbourne, the average crowd at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium was 18,000, and there were 20,000 people at other matches across Australia watching countries like Iran and Bahrain.
"We want to see these people, mums, dads, girls and boys, continuing their interest in football and experience the world game for themselves by giving them a round ball to play with at home, the local park or even at school.
"There are tens of thousands of Victorians already playing football socially but we would like to see these people joining their local clubs, playing in our competitions, having fun with their friends and we want to provide opportunities to those who aspire to play for the Socceroos or Matildas one day," Gome said.
Players, coaches and referees can register to “Play Football” by logging onto Australia's biggest online sports registration portal, which can be found at http://www.myfootballclub.com.au/