QUEENSLAND FUTSAL ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

WHO WILL HOST THE 2004 FIFA FUTSAL WORLD CUP

FIFA Futsal World Championship 2004
The waiting is over. Chinese Taipei will stage the FIFA Futsal World Championship 2004. Although the exact dates have still to be finalised with the Chinese Taipei Football Association, FIFA has stated that, as in previous years, Futsal’s most prestigious competition will take place towards the end of the year.

No less than seven national associations expressed an interest in hosting the fifth edition of the event. The resounding success of Guatemala 2000 prompted Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Paraguay, Thailand and Iran to bid to stage the competition. However after much deliberation, it was Chinese Taipei who convinced FIFA that they were the perfect choice to organise the increasingly popular tournament.

Netherlands 89, Hong Kong 92, Spain 96 and Guatemala 2000 are the four FIFA Futsal World Championships to have been held to date, milestones that helped shape it into the hugely popular sport it is today.

The successful bid is a fitting tribute to the work being done by the Chinese Taipei Futsal Federation. Working on the principle that Futsal is a form of football perfectly suited to them, Chinese Taipei should prove worthy hosts of the sport affectionately regarded as football’s little brother.

The selection of Chinese Taipei to stage the FIFA Futsal World Championship 2004 is also recognition of the close co-ordination between administrative and sporting institutions, and the selfless groundwork being carried out to develop the game in schools and clubs around the country. What was once a distant aim has become a reality. And, as with Guatemala 2000, the staging of the tournament comes at just the right time, as a national programme has been introduced to make the sport even more popular and to consolidate an ambitious calendar of competitions.

Next year’s Championship will be the best ever, attracting more and more spectators to one of the fastest-growing sports on the planet.

Futsal’s immediate future lies in Asia and Chinese Taipei.

(taken from fifa.com)

OTHER DECISIONS MADE AT THE FIFA CONFERENCE
The FIFA Soccer World Cup™ will head to South America in 2014.This decision fulfilled the long-time wish of CONMEBOL to see the competition return to South America for the first time since Argentina in 1978.
In view of this decision, the executive felt that further discussions regarding the future rotation of the hosting of the FIFA World Cup™ around the confederations could provisionally be put on ice. (Note I believe Australia will definitely apply for 2018).
It was also decided that a proposal from CONMEBOL to increase the number of finalist teams at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ from 32 to 36 must first be discussed in detail with the various parties involved, before a final decision can be made at the next FIFA Executive Committee meeting on 3 May.
In regards to the soccer club championship, the Executive Committee unanimously stood by the decision it took in Zurich on 8 March 2002 to next hold this event in 2005.
In FIFA international games all players will now shake hands with all members of the other team at the end of the game.

WOMENS NATIONAL TEAM START TRAINING
This weekend the 15th/16th March will see the national women’s team have its first training camp in Sydney at Liverpool. The session, under coach Richard Littler, starts 1.00 pm Saturday and finishes 3.00 pm Sunday. From the nineteen players selected, the squad will be cut back to ten after this camp. The team selected will be travelling to Sardinia, Italy in June.

TOURING COACHES FOR JUNIOR TOURS ANNOUNCED
Coaches for the Brazil,May Centre of Excellence Tour have been announced. The tour will be led by Victorian Director of Coaching Milton Sakkos, who will be on his second trip to the Centre of Excellence, and he will be supported by Natasha Young and Alec Holman.

Natasha is a teacher at Shailer Park High School, Logan City and also plays in the Queensland Open Women’s team. She holds a first aid certificate and Level One Futsal Licence and has been a state coach for three years.

Alec is Regional Development Officer for the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland and also holds a Level One Licence.

Coaches and managers have also been selected for the Canada tour in May. Andrew Lancaster from NSW will be head coach and Sheldon Dyer from Victoria will be assistant coach, with Nicola Zammit tour head of delegation.

Andrew, an ex state and national league player has a very long experience in the sport, having toured overseas five times as well as coached near on 24 state teams over eight years. He also holds a Level Two Futsal Licence and played national league for many years.

Sheldon, the ex Victorian national league goalkeeper and presently coach of the national league Victorian women’s team has toured overseas once before ,and holds a Level One Licence.

Nicola, tournaments and tours manager for Queensland Futsal, holds her Level One Licence and first aid certificate. She is a member of the Queensland Women’s Futsal Team and has toured overseas with Futsal four times previously.
Coaches for Japan are still to be finalised, but at this stage the tour will be headed by Gui Costa, the new Queensland Director of Coaching. Gui has spent three years in Japan coaching and speaks the language fluently. His full resume is in a story below (state news).

All players will be informed of coaches and managers in full later this week.

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 Augus 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

SOCCER AUSTRALIA’S SOLVENCY CONFIRMED
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has concluded its report into the solvency of Soccer Australia Limited, and based on all information, has no further interest in the matter. ASIC’s decision not to continue the review of Soccer Australia’s financial position clearly re-affirms the solvency of FUTSAL’s governing body. This move will allow the Australian Sports Commission to immediately release monies due to Soccer Australia for its various programmes.

The good news for FUTSAL is that once this money is released, Soccer Australia will employ a fulltime manager for the FUTSAL department. At present, George Dick, our present officer at Head Office, is only parttime working two days a week.

NATIONAL FUTSAL COMMISSION HELD ON WEEKEND
The National Futsal Commission met on Saturday in Canberra, the first commission meeting outside of Sydney. A number of important decisions were made, however most of these are outlined in this newsletter. The next meeting will be held Saturday 26th April, during the National League Championships, in Sydney.

STATE NEWS

BRAZILIAN COACH TO BECOME STATE COACHING DIRECTOR
Well its now official, and Queensland Futsal are proud to announce the appointment of a new Director of Coaching. Gui Costa will be starting on 10th April and hopefully will be with us for a very long time. Gui has coached Futsal and soccer for three years in Japan (Akita City) and worked for Cruzeiro Soccer club as a Physical condition coach, but for the last two years has been based in his home city BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL. He received his degree in physical education (major Futsal) in 1998 from the Belo Horizonte University and for the last two years has been coaching Futsal in Belo. Those players and coaches lucky enough to attend Centre of Excellence will know Gui.

He is lucky enough to have an Australian wife Chantal, whose parents live at Runaway Bay, on the Gold Coast, and is looking to settle permanently here.

Gui will be at the regional titles this year selecting teams, so please come up and say hello.

STATE SCHOOL TITLES BREAK ALL RECORDS
Our State School Titles are breaking all records. In total between the South Queensland and North Queensland Titles we have a total of 551 entries, up from 425 last year. With all the regional tournaments still to come in May, we are expecting around 1000 teams to our school competitions this year, all the champions leading into the Champion of Champions Finals in October.

Draws for the school titles are on the website www.qldfutsal.com.au and results are published on the same sites. Players selected for state teams to compete at the national school titles in Toowoomba in October will be named two weeks after the titles.

EARLY REGIONAL TEAM NUMBERS EXCEED EXPECTATIONS
Early nominations for the regional titles for Easter have attracted around 150 teams, up from 91 teams last year. Due to the increase we have had to shift the competitions to four centres…Logan, Beenleigh, Acacia Ridge and Boondall.
If you want to keep up with the nominations we are keeping a running tally on our front homepage. This will be changed week to week as more nominations come in.

REGIONAL SCHOOL TITLES
A reminder to all schools we have Regional Futsal titles throughout Queensland in May. Tournaments will be held at Mt. Isa, Cairns, Rockhampton, Hervey Bay, Gatton, Roma and Lismore. Entry forms and dates of tournaments will be posted and emailed to schools in April, but will also be available on the website from 1st April. HELP US MAKE THIS A 1000 TEAM TOURNAMENT.

UNIVERSITY GAMES
Do you go to university ? Do you love Futsal ? If you do ….get your team together for the NORTHERN UNIVERSITY GAMES. We have an open men’s and open women’s.
Tournament, and the tournament is supported and sanctioned by AUS Northern Division, and is an official tournament of the AUS Northern Games.
The tournament is played the Tuesday and Wednesday after the Regional Club Titles, at the Gold Coast.
Go to our website for further details (in the library). If you have any queries, contact Nicola Zammit on 38752600.

SPECIAL SCHOOL TITLES
Please note that the Special School Titles are on Wednesday 28th May at Acacia Ridge Centre. Nomination forms will be sent out 1st April, however if you want to register an interest in attending, email Nicola on n.zammit@qldfutsal.com.au
We are expecting teams from as far away as Hervey Bay and Toowoomba to attend.

WELCOME TO SOME NEW STAFF
Over the last six months a number of new staff members have started with Queensland Futsal.
In Toowoomba, Bill Sheridan is now our South West Development Officer, looking after all of South West Queensland and he can be contacted on 0413000902.
In Rockhampton, Gail Jasperson is our Central Queensland Development Officer and she can be contacted on 0408780612.
In Hervey Bay, Cassie Ironside is the Fraser Coast Development Officer and she can be contacted on 0418764166.
In State Office we welcome Jodie Hammond, a member of the Australian Women’s Futsal Team, as Brisbane Competition’s Manager and as previously mentioned Gui Costa as Director of Coaching.
Other fulltime additions at State Office are Julie Templemann as office trainee ( after two years on a school based traineeship) and Margaret Burley who as well as running Mount Gravatt and Acacia Ridge, is also taking on the role of Merchandising Manager.
At present Queensland Futsal has a total of 19 employees (17 fulltime) delivering and developing the sport across the state. Full details of all staff will appear in the next newsletter.

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

TRUE STORY FROM THE CRICKET WORLD CUP THIS WEEK
“ Pakistan players brawled amongst themselves yesterday on the eve of their final World
Cup game against Zimbabwe.
Tempers flaired when Younis Khan challenged Inzamam ul Haq for the ball during a friendly soccer match at training in Bulawayo. The pair squared up and when teammate Saeed Anwar tried to defuse the situation , he was pushed to the ground by Inzamam . Coach Richard Pybus then called off the game and led the players into the dressing room. They reemerged 20 minutes later to resume training in the nets without Inzy.
When questioned about the incident, skipper Waqar Younis said
“ It’s nothing new…..WE ALWAYS HAVE THIS PROBLEM WHEN WE PLAY SOCCER. “
(thanks to the Sunday Mail Brisbane Queensland).

JOKE ONE
David Beckham goes to Church
One bright, beautiful Sunday morning, David Beckham trots off as usual down to the local church. Before the service starts, all the local village people sit in their pews and chatter about their lives, their families, etc.
Suddenly, at the altar, Satan appears!! Flames, lightning and smoke fill the church. Everyone starts screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in their determined efforts to get away from Evil Incarnate.
Soon, everyone is evacuated from the church except for one man, our man Becks, who sits calmly in his pew, seemingly oblivious to the fact that God's ultimate enemy is in his presence. This confuses and upsets Satan a greatly.
Satan walks up to Becks and growls "Hey, don't you know who I am?"
David looks up yawning and says, "Yep, sure do."
Satan says, "Well, aren't you afraid of me?"
Becks answers, "No, not really."
Satan, most perturbed, screams, "And why aren't you afraid of me?"
" I’ve seen plenty of you. You’ve refereed half my games this year."

JOKE TWO
At the age of eighty Bill and Fred were the QUEENSLAND VIKINGS greatest fans. They both played national league with the club many years ago, had both later coached the team, had helped out in the office and in retirement had attended without fail every game.
One night after a game and a few beers Bill says to Fred “ Fred, can you promise me that if you die before me, can you come back and tell me what heaven is like…and if I die before you I’ll do the same. “
“Agreed” says Fred.
About two months later, Fred dies from a heart attack (brought on by watching the Vikings beat NSW Quake 10-1) and goes to heaven. As promised, a week later, he comes back in the middle of the night to tell Bill what heaven is like.
“ Well there’s good news and bad news “ says Fred. “ The good news is there is unlimited beer, you get to sleep in, buffet meals all day and best of all a great Futsal league with a game every night. Last night we played Minas Tenis Clube from Brazil and beat them 4-0.”
“ Sounds fantastic !” says Bill “ So what’s the bad news ?”
“Find your gloves…your playing in goal for us tonight. “

JOKE THREE
The coach of the NS W Futsal Team finally dies and goes to heaven. At the pearly gates he is met by St Peter who offers to give him a tour of heaven.
After a quick tour he delivers the coach to a small two bedroom cottage and says “ And here is your house for your eternal stay in heaven. “
The coach looks and sees hanging in the window a small tattered NSW flag with some faded blue curtains in the window. Suddenly he looks up at the hill above him.
Perched on the highest hill in the area is this 80 square four storey mansion. Outside are twenty flagpoles each with a Queensland flag flying high, and the house has been totally painted maroon with a massive photo of the famous old Queensland coach Brian Keightley perched above it with the words written boldly underneath I LOVE QUEENSLAND.
“ Oh “ says the NSW coach “ I see that Queenslander Brian Keightley gets a better house than me. “
“ Keto’s house ?” says St Peter “ That’s God’s house. “

THAT’S ALL FOLKS…..SEE YOU NEXT WEEK