** Update 17/6/09 : Please note the following time changes for the trials :

Saturday 20th and 27th of June : 12, 14, 16 Girls 1-3pm, 14 Boys 3pm-5pm
Sunday 21st and 28th of June : Development/12 Boys 2pm-4pm
16 Boys, Youth, Women and Men on a lter date yet to be advised.

MASCOT VIPERS FUTSAL CLUB TRIALS 2009/10

Mascot Vipers will be holding trials for the NSW Premier Futsal League
VENUE: Indoor Central – 5 Kent Road, MASCOT

[Trial Dates and times can be found in the flyer below]

For more information call or text: 0406 616 674 or Email: bomba770@hotmail.com

ATTITUDE IS OF THE ESSENCE! At the Vipers, we are looking for Players who are prepared to listen and learn.

WE WILL BE SIGNING PLAYERS ON THE DAY SO PARENTS BE READY TO FINALISE ALL ON THE DAY INCLUDING PHOTO’S AND REGISTRATION FEES.

2008/09 VIPERS CLUB ACHIEVEMENTS!
12 BOYS, 12 GIRLS & 13 BOYS – State Champions
14 BOYS – Premier League Minor Premiers / State Grand Finalists / Premier League Grand Finalists
YTH MEN – Premier League Preliminary finals
WOMEN – State Champions / Premier League Minor Premiers / Premier League Champions

[ Click the image below for the original flyer in PDF form ]

In the last week of September, Albury & Wodonga’s sports stadiums will come under attack in the form of Vikings Futsal’s National School Championships.

Held from the 28th to the 30th of the month, the focal point of the Futsal School’s calender, will be fought out by more then 120 sides from across Australia and New Zealand, all striving for national honours.

With almost 1200 participants & countless numbers of coaches, supporters & officials, the Albury & Wodonga areas will become a sea of enthusiasm, athleticism & colour.

Teams consist of players chosen as being the best in their school’s region. Vikings have 38 regions across the country that conduct School Titles. This year in addition to these sides from across all states of Australia, the tournament will also feature regions from across the Tasman, flying the flag for the silver ferns.

The flow on effects from staging such a large event are countless. The local community will benefit greatly from accommodating, feeding & entertaining the entire Vikings invasion for the 3 day period. Vikings Schools National Co-ordinator, Jade Banks, sees it as a win, win, win scenario. “To stage a tournament of this size, will be great for the local Albury/Wodonga economy, it provides a huge thrill & a great deal of experience & opportunity for those involved to travel & see first hand this beautiful part of Australia & it is another triumph for Vikings Futsal & the sport in particular.”

Banks continued, “Vikings are committed to the development of Futsal across Australasia. At the core of this are our Schools Programs. These National Titles will showcase the elite of this youth development”.

The Championships will be hosted by the Albury Sports/PCYC Centre with all of their 6 courts in use, the 5 courts at the Wodonga Sport & Leisure Centre as well as the 3 courts at the Wodonga Middle Years College.

2008 saw Dandenong play host to the gala. The blue ribbon senior under 19 events where taken out by the Victoria City region in the males draw & national honours went to the Sydney City region in the women.

Further Tournament details can be gained from Jade Banks 0403 546 871 or email school@vikingsfutsal.com

[ Original Press Release can be found here ]

Bayside Pirates Futsal Club Come & Try Day

When : Saturday 20th June 1pm
Location : Cheltenham Secondary College, Bernard Street, Cheltenham
Cost : Free

This is a great opportunity for everyone to come and try Futsal

FFV Qualified Coaching and Giveaways on the day

See website for further information: www.baysidepiratesfutsal.com.au

People with Disabilities & CALD backgrounds particularly encouraged to try

Contact: Mark Georgeson from Bayside Pirates on 0413 527 501
or info@baysidepiratesfutsal.com.au
or Brett Bean from Leisure link Up on (03) 9783 3855 or beanbrett@optionsvic.org.au

The full Flyer can be seen here (PDF) or click the picture below.

A second Australian team has been invited to attend the AFC Futsal Club Championship to be held in Esfahan, IR Iran. FIFA futsal referees Scott Kidson and Chris Colley are among the twelve officials appointed to the inaugural tournament which starts on July 4.

They will oversee the champion clubs from the top ten AFC nations, including FFA National Championship winners New South Wales Thunder, as Asia’s top playing talent strive to have their club recognised as the confederation’s best when the tournament reaches its climax on July 12.

This appointment is the latest in a long line as Australian whistle blowers go from strength to strength in Asia. Colley was handed the prestigious appointment on the 2008 AFC Futsal Championship Final as 3rd referee. At the same tournament, Kidson was referee on the semi-final between traditional powerhouses IR Iran and Japan.

After joining the FIFA list in 2007, Kidson and Colley were selected to be part of the first AFC Elite Futsal Referee’s panel formulated in 2008. Both retained their place when the panel was reduced from twenty to sixteen this year. Only IR Iran, Japan and Australia are represented by two officials on the panel.

AFC Futsal Club Championship marks the first engagement in another potentially busy year for the duo. The 3rd Asian Indoor Games and two of the four 2010 AFC Futsal Championship qualifying tournaments have been pencilled in for the last quarter of the year. All of the tournaments are likely to involve most of the elite panel’s members.

Scott Kidson bio:
2008
FIFA Futsal World Cup – Ten matches inc. 3rd place play-off referee (Italy v Russia)
OFC Futsal Championships – Eight matches
AFC Futsal Championships – Eight matches inc. Semi-final referee (IR Iran v Japan)
2007
2nd Asian Indoor Games – Eleven matches inc. Women’s Gold Medal 2nd referee (Japan v Thailand)
AFC Futsal Championships – Seven matches inc. Quarter-final Timekeeper (Japan v Thailand)
ASEAN Futsal Championships – Five matches
AFC Futsal Championships Qualifiers – Six matches

Chris Colley bio:
2008
OFC Futsal Championships – Seven matches
AFC Futsal Championships – Eight matches inc. Final 3rd referee (IR Iran v Thailand)
AFC Futsal Championships Qualifiers – Six matches
2007
AFC Futsal Championships – Eight matches inc. Semi-final Timekeeper (Japan v Kyrgyzstan)

For those of you wanting to follow the AFC Championships in Iran, the information below may be helpful.

Unfortunately there will be no live broadcast in Australia but a few days before the Championships, the host club, Foolad Mahan Sepahan will launch an English Version of their website with daily coverage of the Championships. See http://www.fooladmahansport.com/user/Index.jsp?SID=88&lang=Fa. For those who can read Arabic or speak Farsi, it is an interesting site already.

Once the English version is launched, Futsal4all will check and repost any news daily. We encourage you to check out their site directly as well if you need more up to date information. If there are any streams available on the internet we will post them on Futsal4all.

All teams will also get videos of their games, so hopefully it will become generally available sometime in the future for interested parties to watch.

Hosts Foolad Mahan will be spearheaded by Iran Futsal legend and the sport’s leading international goal scorer Vahid Shamsaee with over 300 goals.

Press Release

“5 Star Pink” – raises funds for breast cancer research

Sydney Benfica FC in conjunction with 5 Star Futsal are raising money for breast cancer research and awareness by hosting the “5 Star Pink” fund raising initiative.

This will see the club wearing a pink strip for all home games in this year Football NSW Futsal Premier League. During their home games, Sydney Benfica FC will be collecting gold coin donations and selling pink ribbon merchandise.The National Breast Cancer Foundation is the leading not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting and promoting high quality research into the prevention, detection and treatment of breast cancer.

The Foundation is committed to funding high quality research responsive to the needs and interests of women affected by breast cancer. Since being established in 1994, the Foundation has awarded more than $55 million to 230 breast cancer research projects across Australia.

Breast cancer is one of the most commonly occurring cancers in Australian women, with 13,600 new cases expected to be diagnosed this year. But thanks to excellent research, deaths from the disease have decreased by 22% in the last decade, with more women knowing the benefits of early detection and an increase in treatment options.

“5 Star Pink” vital contribution ensures the NBCF can keep working towards a cure.

Support “5 Star Pink” to make a real difference to the many lives touched by breast cancer.

For more information contact:

NAME: Mrs. Anastasia D’Addona, Sydney Benfica FC
PHONE: 0405 355 276 – Mobile
EMAIL: lorenzo.daddona@benfica.com.au

For further information regarding the National Breast Cancer Foundation please visit www.nbcf.org.au

[ Click here for the Official Press Release (DOC) ]

We have had to issue an updated draw for the Men’s 2009 Winter League. Please advise all your players accordingly.

With a team no longer part of the competition, to maintain the symmetry with both groups the Academy team was withdrawn from their half of the draw. That left 5 teams in each group thus creating a “Bye” in each group; to avoid having 2 teams being idle every week it was decided that both teams that would now receive a “bye” will play each other on the night and the result will count towards their respective tables.

The table below shows team number 3, formerly the Academy, and team number 7, formerly Sydney Tigers both being called WILDCARD.

This weeks draw had Maccabi maulers playing v The academy and Enfield Rovers v Sydney Tigers; so now those 2 games have become the wildcard game between Maccabi v Enfield Rovers. The same process will continue until the round robin is completed and the semifinals commence as per the original draw.

This way minimum disruptions and changes to the original draw are guaranteed in terms of rescheduling games. There have been no changes to the Women’s draw.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter.

Click here to see the revised draw (XLS)

With only a Few weeks until NSW Thunder kick off their 1st A.F.C Club championship campaign in Isfahan, Iran, The team has been announced with the 14 man squad travelling to Isfahan.

Coach Jamie Amendolia has selected Peter Spathis, Dylan Maloney, Toby Seeto, Danny Martinez, Tuan Cao, Andrew Paine, Adrian Vizzari, Roberto Maiorana, Josh Da Palma, Miles Downie, Andres Gomez, Chris Zeballos, Marino Musumeci, Shervin Adeli. From the initial list of 20 players the 6 who missed out will be on standby in case of injuries.The squad has a number of new faces with 16 year old Shervin Adeli getting an opportunity to move up to the men’s side as he has impressed during training and matches during the selection process.

Jamie Amendolia said,” The final 14 players have now been informed of the position to represent NSW in Iran. Over the last 10-12 weeks the players have trained very hard and their commitment to the sport and program has been nothing short of exceptional, making the final decision a very hard one to make. Due to injuries, work commitments and personal reasons some of the more experienced players were not able to make themselves available for selection. We have also had to add and bring the squad up to 14 players including 3 goalkeepers in accordance with the regulations of the tournament. Some may say that this is a changing of the guard for the sport of Futsal in NSW. It will now give us the opportunity to bring some fresh faces onto the international scene, and it gives me great delight to be able to do this. It is my hope that the Futsal community gives its full support to these players in the weeks to come as they endeavour to compete with the best club teams from Asia. ”

NSW Thunder has been drawn in Group B with Port Authority (THA), Wuhan Dilong (CHN), Pro’s Café (LIB), and Al Sadd (QAT). It will be a good test to see where Australian Futsal is at, and will be an invaluable opportunity for this side which are set to create a piece of history being the first Australian club side invited to this prestigious tournament.

Jamie Amendolia said, “Some may say that we received the easier group of the two, but when analysing the teams this is not the case. All of the teams that we will be competing against play in professional leagues in their respective countries. They are afforded the luxury of purely playing Futsal as a profession. They are also able to train 8-10 times a week and develop as Futsal players.

Port Authority of Thailand currently has 3 players from the Thai national team. Over the last few weeks they have also been trying to buy international players for this tournament. Wuhan Dilong will be a very hard team. They have just completed their national league which consisted of 56 rounds, in which they scored something in the vicinity of 350 goals. Their team consists of 8 current Chinese national players who just competed in the last World Cup in Brazil. Pro’s Cafe also have 6 players who are in the national Lebanese team, who were knocked out of the last world cup qualifiers by eventual winners Iran in the quarter finals. Al Saad has also been out shopping. They have just signed 2 Brazilian players and 1 foreign Asian player to bolster their team, as they are allowed by the rules on buying import players for the tournament.

We will be not be underestimating any team in our group. It will be a massive challenge ahead, but I know it is one which the players and myself and relishing. ”

Football NSW and its members wish NSW Thunder the very best of luck in Isfahan!

Match Details

2009 AFC Futsal Club Championship match schedule:

4 July

16:30 New South Wales Thunder (AUS) v Wuhan Dilong (CHN)

5 July

11:30 Al Sadd (QAT) v New South Wales Thunder (AUS)

8 July

16:30 New South Wales Thunder (AUS) v Port Authority (THA)

9 July

11:30 Pro’s Café (LIB) v New South Wales Thunder (AUS)

11 July

16:30 Winner Group B v Runner-up Group A
19:00 Winner Group A v Runner-up Group B

12 July

16:30 Third-place play-off
19:00 Final

All matches to be played at the Pirouzi Stadium, Esfahan. All kick-off times local.

North City Futsal is introducing a Winter Futsal league at the AUT Sport and Fitness Centre, 90 Akoranga Drive, Northcote from Friday 19th June 2009.

The first league will run each Sunday for 10 weeks and the registration fee is $395.

Online registrations open this weekend. Click here for details and to register.

Limited spaces. Registrations will close 5pm Tuesday 16th June or earlier if league is full.

For more information contact Mark Rossi on 0272 171 918 or email soccerama@xtra.co.nz

About North City Futsal

North City is a branch of East City Futsal – the longest established futsal club in New Zealand – based at the ASB Stadium in Kohimarama for over 25 years. We are looking forward to establishing Futsal on the North Shore.

This is a new venue and we will be starting with a social adults league and we would like to implement all age groups, male, female and mixed leagues within the next couple of seasons.

Come and join us and enjoy the wonderful game of Futsal. The fantastic advantage about Futsal Indoor Soccer is it’s never rained out or weather dependant and its on at same venue each week – no cancellations! Referees are supplied for each game.

If you require more information do not hesitate to call Mark Rossi on 0272171918 or would like more information or to register your interest in other age groups please contact us. Once we can get enough players/teams we will start the new groups as quickly as possible.

June Appointments for the Football NSW Futsal Winter State League have been published on the NSWFRA web site. After successful running over the first few rounds, young and upcoming referees are continuing to gain valuable experience with the help of their more experienced counterparts.

Select Group referees Darius Turner and Andrew Best will steer the ship on the resumption after the public holiday working with Development group referees Grant South and Kelly Jones. Along with Kelly, Paul Jones and Brendan Wirz will also make their first appearances of the year at this round.

Gavin Lee and Cameron Bruce take the lead on June 22nd joined by the experienced duo of Gail Willcocks and Kevin Taylor. Young guns Ashley Medway and Daniel Luttringer will push their claims for more regular senior appointments in the summer filling the last two spots on the team. Other than Lee, all referees on the round will be officiating in the competition for the first time this season.

The final round of June has FIFA Referee Ryan Shepheard in action again, holding court with the Select group’s Peter Wilson-Mosey. Bruce Bailey and Greg Webster provide experienced back up while Ross Fazzalaro and Tony Thompson will round out the group.

The Winter Super League gives referees the opportunity to continue to officiate on a high quality competition while giving excellent development opportunities to those referees hoping to hone their skills in the lead up to the Football NSW State Futsal Leagues which return in a few months.

All members are encouraged to enter their July availabilty so that appointments can be made as soon as possible.