OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF QUEENSLAND FUTSAL ASSOCIATION
14TH FEBRUARY 2003

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

SOCCEROOOS TRIUMPANT
Well, I had to wait till after this morning?s game before I wrote the newsletter, and now I am glad I did. For those who may not be aware, Australia beat England 3-1 away in a friendly soccer international, a result which will boost the confidence of soccer people throughout this country. Soccer Australia has taken a fair battering over the last two years, with government enquiries, mass resignations and massive debts, but this result with bring some good news to the organization. And hopefully it will bring more sponsors and more ?goodnews? publicity, which the Australian press haven?t been giving much of lately.
This of course, is good news for FUTSAL as well. As Soccer Australia also controls and finances our national sides?.men and women?..a healthy cashed up SA will mean greater assets for Futsal as well. This year our men already have two tournaments they are preparing for and the women one, with the men?s fully funded and the women?s part funded. Augers well, hopefully within a few years we will also have a youth men and women?s Futsal sides regularly going overseas.

QUIZ QUESTION FOR THE WEEK:
We all know that coach/manager of the Socceroos Frank Farina is a Queenslander, coming from Mareeba in North Queensland. However, who was the one Queenslander who started the game as a player?

KL FIVES
Preparations are already under way for the national men?s team to attend the KL Fives in June. Coach Scott Gilligan will be shortly contacting players to begin training. At present it is planned to have three weekends together plus a five day camp just before the team goes away. It is hoped that the full team will be named after the national league weekend in April (see national news below ).

OCEANIA WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS
Oceania Football Confederation has announced that the OCEANIA FUTSAL PLAYOFFS will be in September in Australia. Where in Australia hasn?t been decided yet, but when the playoffs were last in Australia (1992) ,they were held in Brisbane. The next two have been held at Cook Islands (1996) and Vanuatu (2000). With this key tournament also coming up, it will be necessary for the men?s team to keep up the intensity of training as soon as back from Malaysia.

The Oceania Futsal Cup will be an annual tournament, but every fourth year will also serve as the World Cup Qualifier.

AUSTRALIAN OPENS WOMEN TEAM
Coach Richard Littler has sent players out his training plan for the women?s team going to Italy this June. The first training camp will be in March with one more after that and then a five day camp before players leave. The squad is still at 18 but this will be cut back after the camps.

JUNIOR TOURING TEAMS
The response to the junior select touring teams has been excellent and next issue we will be announcing the list of coaches and managers taking the school May tours. If you haven?t already got back to Brian Keightley re taking up the offer, contact him urgently on 07 38752600. If you are unsure as to who was picked, go to www.qldfutsal.com.au and click on the library on the left for the full list of players selected.

OVERSEAS FUTSAL TOURS COMING UP
KL FIVES(MEN) - 3rd to 6th JUNE - 2003
BRAZIL - 16th MAY to 3rd June - 2003
CANADA - 9TH MAY to 23rd May - 2003
JAPAN - 16TH MAY to 1st June - 2003
Italy (Australian open women) - 22nd JUNE to 6th JULY - 2003
Ecuador/New Zealand - 10th to 24th August - 2003
Austria/Germany - 20th Nov to 11th Dec - 2003
Brazil - 21st Nov to 12th Dec - 2003
Canada - 19th Nov to 10th Dec - 2003

NATIONAL NEWS

NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL STEAM AHEAD
A weekend National League will be held in Sydney on the Anzac Day weekend of 25th to 27th April, for both women and men. At present all states have verbally confirmed attendance so the league should prove to very intense.
Soccer Australia are presently negotiating to have it televised, to be shown later over a number of weeks , similar to the old ALITALIA league was.
The DAL PONTE VIKINGS will be Queensland?s representatives, and will immediately be getting into training. They will be training twice a week at ACACIA RIDGE?Saturdays 10 am to 12.30 pm and Mondays 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm ?..leading up to the tournament.

NATIONAL SCHOOL TITLES
Entry forms for the School?s National Titles were emailed out across Australia last week.. This years national schools are being held at Toowoomba in Queensland , with the interstate series played Monday to Wednesday 29th September to 1st October and the individual school series Thursday and Friday 2nd and 3rd of October.
If you haven?t received an entry form for your school and want one , email me back and I?ll send one to you..

NATIONAL FUTSAL COMMISSION
The next meeting of the National Futsal Commission will be Saturday 8th March, in Canberra.

NATIONAL CLUB TITLES
In the overall points score over all age groups at this year?s nationals, ACT ended up the champion state with NSW second and Queensland third. Performance wise, Queensland was disappointing. We didn?t win any titles, although runners up in 8, but it was clear that perhaps our splitting of the regions into two different states didn?t work. For this year?s regionals, Queensland will still select two teams but will select regions as follows:

State North:
Far North, North, North West, Central, Coral Coast, Fraser Coast, Sunshine Coast and South West.

State South:
Brisbane South, Brisbane North, Logan, Moreton , Greenbank and Gold Coast.

This should make it easier for teams to get together for training.

Next years nationals are in Melbourne, and hopefully we will perform much better.

STATE NEWS

STATE SCHOOL TITLES
Early response to the State School titles has been fantastic with as far west as Charleville and as far north as Gladstone wanting this year to come to the South titles in Brisbane. If you haven?t already got the entry forms, email me and I?ll send them right back.. In feedback re the titles there are two things we particularly want to make you aware of:

Although called the ? state? titles, all tournaments are open to both public (state ) and private schools. As an example, many of the private catholic schools enter (Brigidine, St Josephs, St. Francis)
We are still running the normal regional school titles in May (see below), however schools are allowed to attend both the March tournaments in Brisbane and Townsville, and their normal regional one.
Selections for state sides take place at all tournaments, and all tournaments are qualifiers for Champion of Champions.

MAREEBA FUTSAL TITLES THIS WEEKEND
The Mareeba Futsal Titles are on this weekend. Age groups being competed for are 10,12,14 and 16 boys. Tony Cifuentes , who is organizing the tournament tells me he is expecting teams from Cairns as well as the Tableland to compete. Teams to represent FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND at th eregionals will be selected.

REGIONAL TITLES BEST EVER
Early indications are that this will be the best Regional Titles ever. FIFTEEN regions are sending teams?.North West, Far North, North, Central, Coral Coast, Fraser Coast, Sunshine Coast, South West, Brisbane North, Brisbane South, Logan City, Greenbank , Moreton ,Gold Coast and Northern NSW have all stated they are sending teams.
If you are unsure as to what is happening or want further information ring April in the office on 38752600.

WELCOME BACK APRIL
Speaking of April, we must welcome her back from her performance at the Australia Day Cup in Canberra. As some may be aware, she is the striker for and a regular member of the Australian women national soccer team and spends half of the year off playing soccer somewhere and the other half working for Queensland Futsal.
This is a Women?s World Cup year so we all wish her the best , although it means we won?t miss her for another five months. She will be at the state school titles as usual, so get her autograph now before she becomes famous.

DAL PONTE ACADEMY
Response to news about the setting up of the Futsal academy has been excellent, and a lot of players have rung asking questions. There are a few issues that need clarifying. First, players will not only be selected on ability but also discipline and commitment to Futsal. Those players who ring up to say they have a soccer commitment before Futsal will have shown their true commitment and not be selected.

Second, we are planning to take both academy sides overseas in 2004, and every year after that. Third, Those players who show the ability will be sent to an overseas professional sister club for a trial. Fourth, country players will be considered and selected. Fifth, we are picking 12 males and 12 females. Sixth, junior academys will begin in 2004. Last, if you don?t compete at the regional titles, then it is assumed you are not wishing to be considered for selection in the Academy.

The two coaching positions will be advertised this week. From there the selection committee will be chosen, with the squads selected at the Regional Titles.

WHO'S WHO AT QUEENSLAND FUTSAL
Some people have commented to me that we are growing so quick no one can keep up with who is who at QFA and what they do. Next issue I?ll give a summary of all the staff of Queensland Futsal and what they really do.

WHATS COMING UP-DATES TO REMEMBER

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/23RD April - Northern Universities Games - Gold Coast
25th/27th April - Men?s and Women?s National League - Sydney
5th/7th May - Central Qld School Titles - Rockhampton
12th/14th May - Far North School Titles - Cairns
12th/15th May - South West School Titles - Gatton
19th/20th May - Hervey Bay School Titles - Hervey Bay
26th/27th May - North West School Titles - Mt Isa

HUMOUR
Well after last weeks request for jokes, I have been overwhelmed. Rob Varela from DURAL FUTSAL CLUB, Fred Boylan from Canada Futsal , Craig Farrell from Brisbane and Australia?s only Everton supporter, Al Haynes , all sent jokes in. there are so many I?ll put them over the next two weeks.

From Australia's only Everton supporter

Liverpool FC manager Gerard Houllier is officially going to change his name by French deed poll to ... Toulouse Leplotte.

Q. What is the similarity between a threepin plug and Liverpool?

A. They are both useless in Europe.

From Fred Boylan

JOKE ONE
A young executive was leaving the office late one evening when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredding machine with a piece of paper in his hand.
"Listen," said the CEO, "this is a very sensitive and important document here, and my secretary has gone for the night. Can you make this thing work for me?"
"Certainly," said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button.
"Excellent, excellent!" said the CEO, as his paper disappeared inside the machine. "I just need one copy..."

JOKE TWO
A pregnant woman gets into a car accident and falls into a deep coma.
Asleep for nearly six months, she wakes up and sees that she is no longer pregnant. Frantically, she asks the doctor about her baby.
The doctor replies, "Ma'am, you had twins! A boy and a girl. The babies are fine. Your brother came in and named them."
The woman thinks to herself, "Oh no, not my brother -- he's an idiot!" Expecting the worst, she asks the doctor, "Well, what's the girl's name?"
"Denise," the doctor says.
The new mother thinks, "Wow, that's not a bad name! Guess I was wrong about my brother. I like Denise!" Then she asks the doctor, "What's the boy's name?"
The doctor replies, DeNephew.

JOKE THREE
Having arrived at the edge of the river, the fisherman soon realized he had forgotten to bring any bait. Just then he happened to see a little snake passing by who had caught a worm. The fisherman snatched up the snake and robbed him of his worm. Later, feeling sorry for the little snake with no lunch, he snatched him up again and poured a little beer down his throat. Then he went about his fishing.
An hour or so later the fisherman felt a tug at his pant leg. Looking down, he saw the same snake with three more worms in his mouth...

That's all folks.

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