Nations capital ready for Futsal Nationals

Capital Football is preparing to host the 2009 National Futsal Championships with 120 teams coming from interstate and internationally to compete in the week long tournament kicking off in a week’s time.

Capital Football is preparing to host the 2009 National Futsal Championships with 120 teams coming from interstate and internationally to compete in the week long tournament kicking off in a week-s time.

The National-s will be celebrating two significant milestones next week with the 30th Anniversary since the inception of the Championships in 1980 and the 21st time that Canberra held the most important week in the national Futsal calendar.

“I think it-s fair to say that the ACT has well and truly put Futsal on the map over the 30 years,” Capital Football CEO Heather Reid said.

“I think it only goes to show the confidence that the FFA has in Capital Football to host big events.”

“Being able to host a national championships such as these National Futsal Championships with 120 teams and the ability to find facilities, accommodation and infrastructure to support such an event is important and we-ve proven that Capital Football can achieve the desired results.”

“The game of Futsal continues to improve especially with the connection to Asia we-ve got the opportunity to play in the Asian Championships and hopefully a few more programs for women.”

Tasmania and the Northern Territory are the only two state/territories not to be represented at the upcoming tournament that caters for boys and girls from under 11-s to Open age groups.

The tournament has a history of attracting international competitors and 2009 is no different with the Solomon Island-s returning for another year along with a Men-s Open team from New Caledonia who will be making their national-s debut.

“The tournament is particularly important for those smaller nations within Oceania and it-s an important indication that we need to support those countries even though we-re not longer within the Oceania Football Confederation.”

“We-ve got a competition here that provides them with opportunities to compete against the highest standard of Futsal is the region and let them benchmark themselves against our best.”

“It-s also great for tourism so hopefully they enjoy themselves in Canberra in January.”

The ‘indoor- national-s made their debut in Melbourne, Victoria in 1980 before moving to Broken Hill, NSW in 1981 where women played for the first time before it returned to its perpetual home in Revesby, NSW in 1982.

The ACT then hosted twenty of the 27 proceeding national-s with the exception of South Australia (1985), Moe, Victoria (1988), Queensland (1991, 2006) and Homebush, NSW (2002,2003).

New South Wales will be the best represented at the Championships with 31 teams competing for titles closely followed by the Australian Capital Territory with 27 while Northern and Southern NSW both have 14 teams respectively traveling.

The 2009 FFA National Futsal Championships kick off Tuesday, 6th January and conclude on the Saturday, 10th January with matches played at various venues across the ACT during the week. For more information visit www.futsalnationals.com.au.