QUEENSLAND FUTSAL NEWSLETTER MONDAY 20/01/03

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

SOCCER AUSTRALIA APPOINT WOMEN'S NATIONAL FUTSAL COACH
At the National Futsal Commission meeting held during the recently held national titles in Sydney, RICHARD LITTLER was appointed coach of the women?s national team. Richard is an ex VIKINGS national league player and has coached either the Queensland open men or women over the last eight years. His greatest success was coaching the winning women?s team in the ALITALIA national league in 1998.Married with two children, he is both a Level two coach and instructor, and is employed by Queensland Futsal as operations manager. His first task is to prepare the women for their tour of Italy in June.

NATIONAL WOMENS SQUAD NAMED
After the recently held national titles, Soccer Australia named a squad of 19 women which will be cut be to a final touring squad of 10 to tour Italy in June. Of the 19, seven are from NSW, six from ACT , four from Queensland and two from Victoria. The final squad is Jill Crocker, Maria Triantafilou, Leanne Mills, Taryn Riley, Sam Riley, Amanda Riley ( all ACT) Racquel DeConte, Gemma Etherington ( both Victoria) Chrystal Dean, Emma Kate Dewhurst, Zoe Gamble, Katie Maryvale, Belinda Sears, Dimitri Poulos, Joanne Williams ( all NSW) Jade Banks, Jodie Hammond, Gill McMaster, Jenny Wallis (all Queensland). The squad will be cut back to ten by Easter, in preparation for the Italy tour.
Special congratulations to JADE BANKS from Queensland who made the squad from the under 18 team.

CANADA FUTSAL APPOINT NEW MEN?S COACH
The Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) today announced the appointment of former national team player Ross Ongaro to the position of Head Coach of the newly created National Futsal Program.
An Edmonton native, Ongaro?s playing career includes caps with Canada's Men's Olympic and Youth Teams, and professional experience in the North American Soccer League (NASL), the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL), and the American Indoor Soccer League (AISL).

His coaching experience began as a Player Assistant Coach with the CPSL Edmonton Brick Men from 1985 to 1987. From 1996 to 2000, Ongaro served as the head coach of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) Edmonton Drillers where he earned Head Coach of the Year honours two years in a row.

Over the next few months, Ongaro plans to scout Canadian players in the MISL, A-League, and NCAA as well as across Canada before holding the first National Futsal training camp in December 2003.
(THANKS TO BOB LUFT FROM ONTARIO FUTSAL)

JAPAN TO PLAY BRAZIL IN FRIENDLY
On Sunday 19th January, Japan played Brazil in a friendly game at Sau Paulo. The end result was 8-1 to Brazil with Betao (3), Manuel Tobias (2) , Leitao (2) , Pablo (1) the goalscorers for Brazil and Segane the scorer for Japan.

KL WORLD FIVES SET FOR 3RD JUNE START
The replacement tournament for the Singapore Tiger 5?s, the Kuala Lumpar World Fives is scheduled for June 3-6 at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil. A total of 12 teams will compete, including defending champions Spain, Brazil, Italy, Holland, Egypt, Costa Rica, AUSTRALIA, Russia, Thailand, Japan and Iran.

RECORD NUMBER OF BIDDERS FOR FIFTH FUTSAL WORLD CHAMPS

From FIFA News Services

ZURICH (1-16-03) - Six national associations have officially confirmed their interest in staging the FIFA Futsal World Championship 2004, a record number of bidders for the competition.
AUSTRALIA, Bahrain, China Taipei, Iran, Paraguay and Thailand affirmed their candidacy before the end-of-year deadline.
The six national associations have until February 1, 2003 to submit bid documentation along with the signed Organization Association Agreement (OAA) to FIFA before a final decision is made regarding the host nation at the Executive Committee on March 6, this year.
The number of candidates would have been even greater but Egypt withdrew to concentrate resources on the organisation of the 2006 African Cup of Nations.
Egypt, which has already done much to promote futsal - most recently hosting an international tournament underneath the Pyramids - are also bidding to stage the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The number of bidders for the tournament clearly highlights the growing popularity of the game globally. The number of teams participating in each confederation?s qualifying rounds is also expected to show a notable increase.
This is concrete proof that Futsal is becoming ever more popular and attractive,? commented FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter. ?In recent years, this sport has made great progress across the board, and that delights me.?
previous four FIFA Futsal World Championships have been held in the Netherlands (1989), Hong Kong (1992), Spain (1996), and Guatemala (2000). Brazil won the first three tournaments, with Spain claiming the title in 2000.
(THANKS TO Futsal On-Line)

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE MOVES TO CRUZEIRO
The famous Centre of Excellence programme, held in Belo Horizonte Brazil, will from now on be held at CRUZEIRO Futsal/Soccer club in Belo.The programme initially started at COLEGIO SANT ANTONIO and then moved to CLUBE AMERICA in Belo. CRUZEIRO, who are the current BRAZIL CUP champions in soccer have been most impressed by our programme and have asked if they can be involved.
The benefit to our players is that CRUZEIRO not only have world class Futsal facilities, but are also one of the major NATIONAL SOCCER LEAGUE clubs in Brazil. RENAULDO started his soccer career with the club and the great TOSTAO was one of their most famous players. The members of the Centre of Excellence will also have some soccer training with the CRUZEIRO team and will be special guests at their home games while visiting.

OVERSEAS FUTSAL TOURS COMING UP


SINGAPORE FIVES(MEN) - JUNE 3rd to 6th - 2003

BRAZIL - 18th MAY to 3rd June - 2003

CANADA - 9TH MAY to 23rd May - 2003

JAPAN - 16TH MAY to 1st June - 2003

USA (under 18 Qld women) - 15TH JUNE - 2003

Italy (Australian open women) - 22nd to 6th JUNE - 2003

Spain ( Queensland Open ) - 1st SEPTEMBER - 2003

NATIONAL NEWS

NATIONAL TITLES HUGE SUCCESS
Last weeks national Futsal titles in Sydney were a huge success from the impressive opening ceremony on Tuesday through to the men?s final on Friday afternoon. Ninety one teams from six states and two nations (Solomon Islands and New Zealand) saw one a the largest nationals in years take place. Cogratulations to NSW Futsal for a very professionally run tournament.
Queensland unfortunately was not very successful as we won no titles but were runnersup in eight including the youth men and open women. Probably the most exciting game of the day was the over 35?s final where the biggest crowd of the day saw NSW narrowly beat the Queenslanders 3-2. For the record ACT won the open mens 6-3 defeating NSW in the final and NS won the open women defeating Queensland 7-1.
Next years nationals will be in Melbourne , the first time since 1990 we have been there. Victoria Futsal tell us that Tasmania has already confirmed attendance at next years nationals and Western Australia has stated their group will grow even more.

JOE BRONDOLINO CONFIRMED AS FUTSAL COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
At the NATIONAL FUTSAL COMMISSION meeting held during the national titles, Mr Joe Brondolino from Victoria was confirmed as chairman of the NATIONAL FUTSAL COMMISSION. Joe was previously a commissioner of SOCCER AUSTRALIA, and is presently a member of three FIFA committees as well as the OCEANIA football committee. His influence and leadership will certainly be of great value over the next year.

NATIONAL SELECT TEAMS FROM NATIONAL TITLES
Teams have been selected in a number of age groups to tour overseas in November this year. Tours will be heading to Brazil, New Zealand, Austria/Germany and Canada. Teams list will be published in the next newsletter.

NATIONAL SCHOOL TITLES
Entry forms for the national school titles in Toowoomba will be emailed to interested schools this week. If you or your school wish it emailed to you (and you haven?t already contacted me) please email me back.

STATE NEWS

LOGAN CITY CUP
Have you received your entry form for the LOGAN CITY CUP? If not, write back and I will email it to you. We have already had plenty of interest, so make it easy for us and get your entries in now !!! They officially close 31st January.

STATE SCHOOL TITLES
Entry forms for the state school titles are going out this week. We will be emailing to teachers as well as posting to all schools. If you want an entry form emailed or posted to you please email me back. Last year we had near 660 teams compete in all our tournaments across Queensland and this year we are expecting even more. The tournament is open to primary and secondary teams from under ten years to open. From these tournaments we select state sides to attend the national school titles in Toowoomba this year.

REGIONAL TITLES
Early indications from the regions are that the regionals are going to have a massive increase. Fourteen Regions : Far North West, North, Central, Coral Coast, Fraser Coast, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, North NSW, South West, Brisbane North, Brisbane South, Moreton, Logan City and Greenbank & Dist. have already started organizing their teams, so we are expecting a big turn out. The regionals run for three days over Easter and involve 19 age groups. State teams are selected at this tournament to go to next years year?s nationals in Melbourne.

QUEENSLAND VIKINGS SCHOLARSHIP
The QUEENSLAND VIKINGS FUTSAL ASSOCIATION have announced an annual scholarship to attend the CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE in BRAZIL. FORMS for the scholarship can be downloaded from the our website after the 15th February, and applicants must meet the set down criteria. The scholarship is a fully paid trip to CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE (except spending money) and will be decided by the 31st May to attend in November. At present there is only one scholarship a year, but it is hoped in the future to increase to more.

DAL PONTE VIKINGS ACADEMY
At this years REGIONAL TITLES, the QUEENSLAND VIKINGS will be selecting a men?s and a women?s academy squad, with twelve players in each. The players will be fully sponsored including participation at national club titles, regionals, national school titles and all necessary playing equipment, training and injury treatment needs. This squad will also be the basis of our men?s and women?s teams and a future goal is also to send them to a major overseas tournament once a year. One of the major commitments will be training once a week all year, increasing to twice a week October to January.

The programme is sponsored by DAL PONTE, a major Futsal gear supplier from Brazil, and VIKINGS sporting goods of Australia, and the teams will be known as the DAL PONTE VIKINGS. The whole programme will cost around $30000 but it is worthwhile if it gives our players a better preparation for tournaments and gives our junior players something to aim for in the sport.

Twelve men and women will be selected and it is hoped in 2004 to also bring in and under 16 boys and under 16 girls programme.

WHATS COMING UP-DATES TO REMEMBER

8th/9th February - Logan City Cup - Cornubia

10th/28th March - State Secondary School Titles - Brisbane

24th/25th March - State Primary School Titles - Brisbane

31st March - Special School Titles - Acacia Ridge

19TH/21ST April - Regional Titles - Brisbane South

22nd/24th April - Northern Universities Games - Gold Coast

HUMOUR

TRUE STORY
An English soccer goalkeeper kept on playing in a fog affected game because he didn't realize the game had been abandoned.

Richard Siddall, who couldn?t see past his own penalty box, was minding the goal for Stockbridge Steels when he realized the opposition had not come near his box for nearly ten minutes. He only found out when a passing fan told him the game had been called off.
''I was just waiting for a player to come through the mist,'' Siddall told a local newspaper. ''When nobody did I thought they were all at the other end of the pitch.''

THAT?S ALL FOLKS?..SEE YOU NEXT WEEK