Schools Futsal Festival – an attraction

The Malta Football Association through its Grassroots, Youth Development & Education section within the Technical Centre, is again holding a Futsal Festival on a schools basis. This event, held in collaboration with the Sports Promotion Unit within the Kunsill Malti g?all-Isport, is a much awaited and attractive fun festival held annually for schools in Malta and Gozo. Its popularity among youngsters has grown in the last years as attested by the participation of hundreds of schoolchildren, boys and girls.

The first phase held on a class basis started recently with five-a-side matches played in several schools. After this initial phase the teachers in charge were able to choose the team to represent the school in the second phase which is to be held at St Benedict College and the Cottonera Sports Complex.

This sifting in this phase will make for higher quality fare as the festival eventually enters the third phase in May.

In this way organisers will be able to evaluate the skills of the schoolchildren with a view to honing them further for eventual upgrading to higher levels of competition. It is to be noted that this year there is an increased number of participants since more church schools have entered the event.

During the festival, MFA technical staff will be present and will be able to assess the potential of several young participants. The sponsors of the Festival, Teamsport, will assist the MFA in distributing sports equipment to schools, as well as a T-Shirt given to all children whilst the other sponsors General Soft Drinks, will provide water for while the other sponsors,

The MFA is also giving all the participants a newly-designed T-Shirt.

The MFA wishes to thank all the participants from several schools, organisers and sponsors for making the event yet again an unqualified success.

Phase Two will be held over two blocks, the first between Tuesday 10 and Friday 13 January at St Benedict College’s new complex at Kirkop Boys’ Secondary School, and the second between Monday 23 and Friday 27 January at the Cottonera Sports Complex.

Meanwhile the finals of the Primary Girls Schools Festival will be held on Tuesday 10th January at St Martin’s College.

The event, the only one reserved for girls, will commence at 9.00 am and will be followed by the presentation of medals and mementos by the national women’s team coach, Pierre Brincat, while balls to all participating schools will be donated by courtesy of the MFA.

Each girl will then be presented with a medal, with eight schools receiving a commemorative shield.

The schools taking part will be San Anton, San Andrea, St Martins, St Catherine’s, Theresa Nuzzo, St Joan Antide, Chiswick and Fgura Government School.

It is to be noted that the first part of the festival was very successful and generated a lot of interest among the schools, including the supporters of the respective teams. There were two rounds played at the outdoor synthetic pitches of San Anton and St Martin Schools, with 11 teams taking part from the eight schools, three of which entered two teams each. The total of participants was over 150.

Each team was under the guidance of the PE teacher. The standard of football was quite encouraging and the matches provided further evidence that many schoolgirls have football at heart.

After next week the final Fun Festival is now scheduled for Wednesday 2nd May at Ta’ Qali training grounds. This promises to be a fitting climax to an event which is fast gaining in popularity.

Photo: Copyright © domenic aquilina