QUEENSLAND FUTSAL ASSOCIATION

A FOUNDER MEMBER OF SOCCER AUSTRALIA’S FUTSAL COMMISSION
AND
AFFILIATE AND MEMBER OF QUEENSLAND SOCCER FEDERATION.
AND
PROUDLY FUNDED BY QUEENSLAND STATE GOVERNMENT OFFICE OF SPORT.

IMPORTANT
MY APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE BUT I HAVE NOT PUT OUT A NEWSLETTER FOR THREE MONTHS. UNFORTUNATELY MY COMPUTER CRASHED AND I LOST MY EMAIL NEWSLETTER ADDRESS BOOK.WE HAVE RECOVERED SOME OF IT HOWEVER IF YOU RECEIVE THIS NEWSLETTER TWICE EMAIL ME BACK OR IF YOU RECEIVE IT AFTER PREVIOUSLY WANTING YOUR NAME REMOVED, ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES NOW AND RE EMAIL YOUR REQUEST TO BE REMOVED.

(this newsletter is dedicated to norah who died today aged 94….. mother of Margaret and grandmother of Craig ,Chris and Belinda. . RIP.)

NEW SEASON SIGNONS THIS WEEK
Park Ridge Club
Park Ridge Indoor Stadium Wednesday 13th to Friday 15th
5.30 pm to 7.30 pm
Contact Kelly: 0413000848

Wynnum Club
Wynnum Chapel 161 Preston Road Wynnum
Tuesday 19th and Thursday 21st August
5.30 pm to 7.30 pm
Contact Inge: 38752600 or 38221262

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

ASIAN FUTSAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Asian Futsal Championships were played last week in Japan, with 16 teams entering. The final saw Iran defeat Japan 6 – 4, an excellent improvement for the Japanese.
Some of our players and members may remember the Japanese played a three game friendly series against Australia during the Queensland regional titles at Easter this year, which saw one win to the Japanese and two draws.For more information go to www.futsalplanet.com

OCEANIA FUTSAL WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS
The Oceania Futsal World Cup playoffs have now been set for October 20th to 25th in Canberra. At this stage four countries: Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu and Fiji, have definitely entered. The Futsal World Cup is next year in Taiwan and Queensland Futsal will definitely be taking a supporters tour with ‘ guest’ tour leader Mauricio Marques. With Mauricio also likely to be acting in an official or unofficial capacity with the probable tournament favourites Brazil, tour members will have the chance to meet and mix with the Brazil team.

WOMENS WORLD SOCCER CUP IN THE USA
I know it’s soccer not Futsal, but the women’s Soccer World Cup starts in the USA on the 20th September and our own April Mann, assistant tournaments manager for Queensland Futsal will be there for the Matildas. April had a good tournament at the Oceania Titles this year where she ended up leading goalscorer, so hopefully she can continue this good form in the USA. www.fifa.com will carry regular reports of the tournament and we will put information on our website (especially if April can score a goal). All the best.

UNDER 17 JOEYS TEAM…..IS FUTSAL GOOD FOR SOCCER SKILLS?
The under 17 Australian Joeys Soccer Team to play in the under 17 FIFA World Cup was announced a few weeks ago and with great pride I must speak of the six Queenslanders selected. Matt Christensen, nephew of Camira Futsal Club supremo Jan, started at Camira Futsal at 6. In an interview with a local paper he actually stated he only played Futsal till he was eleven when someone saw him playing and asked him to play soccer. Matt is now at Southhampton in England.
Dane Richardson and Mario Apricio attended nearly every Futsal nationals, school and club, from ten years to fifteen years representing Queensland and regularly played at the Logan City Club. Dane actually lives over the back fence from Australian women’s Futsal coach and Queensland Futsal Operations Manager, Richard Littler. Ben Griffin, play Futsal at The Gap Futsal Club and Marist Brothers Ashgrove and was also a regular up to 15 at all National Futsal titles for Queensland. Matt Hilton played Futsal for Palm Beach Currumbin School on the Gold Coast and was regularly selected for the state side. Adam Casey, was one of our first players at Townsville Futsal Club when we started five years ago, and only stopped playing when he moved to Canberra to attend the Australian Institute of Sport.

So next time you have to listen to some ancient soccer coach tell you Futsal is a detriment to soccer, give him some facts.

OVERSEAS FUTSAL TOURS COMING UP
United Kingdom - 6th to 25th October - 2003
Brazil - 21st Nov to 10th Dec - 2003
New Zealand - 28th Nov to 10th Dec - 2003
Brazil (Dal Ponte Vikings) - 19th to 7th February - 2004
Spain/Portugal - 15th April to 4th May - 2004
Brazil - 7th May to 25th May - 2004
England - 14th April to 3rd May - 2004

NATIONAL NEWS

NATIONAL SCHOOL TITLES Organisation for the national school titles is now on target .The interstate tournament will be Monday 29th September to Wednesday 1st October and the individual school series will be Thursday 2nd and Friday 4th October. Games will be played across twelve courts…Beenleigh Arena, Cornubia Insports and Carina Basketball. Once we have all entries in from the states, we will be able to do the draw, so we are planning on having the draw finished mid September. Any enquiries re h tournaments contact Nicola Zammit on n.zammit@qldfutsal.com.au or 617 38752600.

NATIONAL CLUB TITLES
At the last National Futsal Commission meeting the National Club Titles were switched from Melbourne to Canberra. The three day tournament will now be played Tuesday 13th January to Thursday 15th January 2004.

I apologise for any inconvenience to our Queensland players and parents but the matter was totally out of our hands.

SOCCER AUSTRALIA NEWS
I’m sure everybody in Australia has read by now of the election of a new government backed board to govern Soccer Australia, a major recommendation of the Crawford Report into the running of soccer in Australia.
A lot of rumours are flying about as to what is going to happen to Futsal in Australia, but I wish to confirm to everyone its business as usual. The new board supports both the National Futsal Commission and the Futsal chairman and member of a number of FIFA committees, JOE BRONDOLINO. Soccer Australia’s Futsal Officer George Dick is also continuing in his role.

STATE NEWS

DAL PONTE VIKINGS SQUAD NAMED
After two months of trials, the DAL PONTE VIKINGS teams have now been finalized. A full report on the teams can be seen by going to our website www.qldfutsal.com.au.

Team lists are:
GUI COSTA (head coach), STU BAKER (men’s manager and assistant women’s coach) ANDREW KENDALL (assistant men’s coach) STEVE TIPLER (women’s manager).

Men’s squad:
NICHOLAS PAPADATOS, ANDREW JACQUIN, DAMIAN PILAT, DAVID FISCHER, CRAIG NIPPERESS, IAN KEEN, ANDY MCINTYRE, DANNY NGULUAFE, STEVEN LENNON, JOVAN GACESA, LUKE HAYDON and RAY MORTENSON.

Women’s squad:
GILL MCMASTER, LEESA WILTSHIRE, JODIE HAMMOND, JADE BANKS, ASHLEY HAMILTON, LAUREN YOUNG, RUTH DOUGLAS, LAILEY TANSON, CASSIE VIAL, KATE LUTKINS, ALIESE HOFFMAN and NANCY ANN PARKER.

The squad has a full programme ahead for the year including a tour of Brazil in January and being the host team in a major international tournament at Easter next year. Thanks to Steve Keen the team now also has its own website under construction….go to www.dalponte.org.au. More details later.

FUNDING FOR NEW FLOOR FOR STATE STADIUM APPROVED
The State Government has approved funding of $68000 towards putting a new pulastic floor in at Acacia Ridge Centre (state office) and Brisbane City Council has backed up with an extra $30,000. We are awaiting the approval of $20,000 from the Community Benefits Fund (due in the next month) to complete the process. In good news for all teams playing and training at Acacia Ridge, it is planned to lay the floor over the Christmas break.

FUTSAL CLUBS RECEIVE GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Talking of funding, Congratulations to Mareeba Eagles Futsal Club ($4000), Sunshine Coast Futsal Club ($3000) and South Queensland Vikings Club ($2115) who all received State Government Funding for Coach Education and Training for the next year.

FAR NORTH ADMINISTRATOR APPOINTED
Tony Cifuentes has been appointed Futsal Administrator for Far North Queensland. Tony will be based in Cairns and will be responsible for an area stretching from Innisfail in the south to Cape York in the north and west to Normanton. This season will see six centres operating in the far north…..Mareeba, Malanda,Innisfail, North Cairns,South Cairns and Cairns City.

Tony becomes Queensland Futsal’s 18th fulltime employee and joins our other five regional administrators-----Scott Cowen in Townsville, Gail Jasperson in Rockhampton, Cassie Ironside in Hervey Bay, Alec Holman in Sunshine Coast and Bill Sheridan in Toowoomba. For more details on Tony, see the news item at our website www.qldfutsal.com.au or ring him on mobile 0439 780277.

ROCKHAMPTON OFFICE OPENED
Queensland Futsal has opened an office in Rockhampton at 77 East Street Rockhampton. The office will be open office hours to and will include a shop selling a display of VIKINGS and DAL PONTE gear for sale. Manned by Regional Administrator Gail Jasperson the phone number of the office is 49210366.

SOUTH WEST SCHOOL TITLES
The South West School Titles are now on at Gatton the 19th to 21st August. For further information ring Brian Keightley on 38752600 or b.keightley@qldfutsal.com.au

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL CUP
The second Strawberry Festival Cup will be played 6th September. This year we are playing it at the Redlands Showgrounds itself to be part of the festival. Age groups are 15 boys, open boys, 15 girls and open girls. Enquiries to Brian Keightley as above.

GOLD COAST CUP
The Gold Coast Cup is this weekend Saturday 16th August for the same age groups as the Strawberry Festival. If you haven’t already entered please once again contact Brian as we wish to start the draw midday Wednesday.

SCHOOL CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS
If you wish to see final qualifiers for the SCHOOL CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS, go to home page www.qldfutsal.com.au and click on CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS list at top of page. The competition is played 20th to 23rd October at Beenleigh and is where the champion schools from each region school titles come together to playoff to be the overall state champion in there age group. The champion teams in open boys and girls receive a Futsal pack worth $1000 and the champion teams in all other age groups a package worth $550.
This year we are selecting a representative team for both open boys and open girls to play the DAL PONTE VIKINGS. This will give these players the opportunity to be seen by coach GUI for the 2004 Academy.

WHATS COMING UP-DATES TO REMEMBER

16th August - Gold Coast Schools Cup - Tallebudgera
18th/21st August - South West Schools - Gatton
6th September - Strawberry Festival Cup - Redlands
29th Sept/1st October - National School Titles - Brisbane
2nd/3rd October - National Individual School Titles - Brisbane
18th October - Far West School Titles - Roma
20th/23rd October - School Champion of Champions - Beenleigh
25th October - Chantelle Cramb Cup - Toowoomba

HUMOUR
With the television soccer season about to start, it’s probably the right time to remind all our readers of "commentator speak" or what the television commentators really mean.

A solid player - a very slow defender
Lightning fast player - has absolutely no ability to control the ball
A vital cog in the team - is going out with the coach’s daughter
Tackles hard - goes around kicking people
Experienced - knows how to kick people but hide it from the ref
Promising - will never make it as a player
Very promising - as above, plus his father is a director
Good in the air - can’t control the ball on the ground…usually very tall so he doesn’t have to jump to head the ball.
Works hard off the ball - runs around like a headless chook, but totally unable to do anything with the ball if he receives it.
A coache’s player - no one knows how he gets in the team
A player’s player - he buys the drinks for the team after the game

( more next week…………..)

THAT’S ALL FOLKS…..SEE YOU NEXT WEEK