Monday 15th September

OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF QUEENSLAND FUTSAL ASSOCIATION

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

NEW SEASON SIGNONS THIS WEEK
Sign ons have been to say the least, spectactular. The numbers at Enoggera have been brilliant, as have our other new clubs Forest Lake and Ipswich Eastern Suburbs. If you are still looking to sign on somewhere give Jodie a ring on 38752600.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

BRAZIL TO PLAY IN THAILAND
Favourites join the fray
Published on Sep 14, 2003
[FUTSAL] Big names Brazil, Japan and the USA will join Thailand in a friendly futsal tournament at Nimibutr National Stadium from November 19-22.
The event will serve as a warm up for the Thai team for next year's Futsal World Cup.
Futsal became popular in Thailand following the national team's impressive performance at the KL Four-Nation tournament in Malaysia last year, which saw its Asian ranking jump to third behind Iran and
Japan.
"We have invited Brazil and Japan, and since Italy has declined their invitation, we have called in another world-class team - the USA,'' said Adisak Benjasiriwan, president of the Futsal Development
Association of the Football Association of Thailand "This will be a great chance for the Thai fans to witness top-quality futsal right in their own backyard," he added.
(Thanks to Futsal English Website and Steve Harris for this).

FUTSAL GOLD CUP TO BE PLAYED IN LOS ANGELES
The USA is hosting the FUTSAL GOLD CUP (national men’s teams) in Los Angeles the 4th to 7th December, not 18th to 21st September as previously mentioned. Competing will be Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and the USA. Go to www.futsal.com for further details.

BRITISH MEDIA GETS BEHIND FUTSAL
It was good to see the June issue of Four Four Two magazine, an excellent British monthly soccer magazine I subscribe to, run a main story labeled “FUTSAL…IS IT THE FUTURE OF FOOTBALL.” It’s a four page article with plenty of photos from the UEFA FUTSAL TITLES. The article inside is headlined “(the reporter) has seen the future of the beautiful game and its name is Futsal. Welcome to the five a side human pinball specially designed to favour the samba skills.”
Also in the same issue was an article on old Wolverhampton Wanderers soccer star DEREK DOUGAN. Interesting to read that in 1976, when his soccer career was ending he mentioned he was contracted to play Futsal in SAO PAULO along with Eusebio and Bobby Moore.
If anyone wants copies of the stories, I have the magazine in the office or I can fax to you.

LATEST SHIPMENT OF DAL PONTE SHOES ARRIVE
Our latest shipment of Dal Ponte Futsal shoes arrived on Friday. We will have them all for sale at the national school titles, however if you want an early look at them you can come to head office at Acacia Ridge. There are 13 different styles brought in so you will certainly have plenty of selection.

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

WHO IS A QUALIFIED COACH?
I mentioned in the last newsletter about people claiming to be qualified coaches, and I have a number of people email me and ask how do you tell someone is qualified.
It is quite simple. If you complete a recognized coaching course you receive an Australian Coaching Council identification card, outlining what sport you are qualified in. The card is yellow and states the holder is qualified in that sport. If you are unsure about a coach, ask him for his card, or contact Queensland Futsal for a list of qualified coaches.

WHAT IS THE WORKING WITH CHILDREN CARD
The Australian government has brought in a ‘Working with Children Card’ for adults who work in someway with children. The idea is that you cannot get this card if you have a past history of problems, when dealing with children. All sports coaches dealing with children are expected to have this card.

RECORD ENTRIES FOR NATIONAL SCHOOL TITLES
When entries closed, the state series of the National School titles had 103 team entries, what would be a record for the competition. The individual school entries only closed Friday, but we are looking at 30 to 40 entries there as well.
This years national school titles are in home territory, Brisbane, from the 29th September to 3rd October.
The draw for the state series is already up on our website www.qldfutsal.com.au and the individual schools will be up by this Friday. During the tournament we will be putting up results on the website every two hours. Parents can go to this to keep up to date.

ORGANISATION FOR NATIONAL SCHOOLS
For those of you coming to the national schools, it is important to remember a couple of points.
First, if you are a coach or manager, come to state office headquarters at Acacia Ridge between 3.00 pm and 6.00 pm on Sunday the 28th September to collect your tournament pack. This includes includes selection sheets for ALLSTAR teams. This year we are looking to all coaches to have a say in selections.
Second, officials at all centres will be wearing stand out orange shirts, to make it easy for you to locate them. On the back will be written QFA OFFICIAL.
Third, we will be selling indoor shoes, balls and tournament souvenier shirts at all centres, with the VIKINGS DEN caravan moving around the centres.

STATE NEWS

EARLY STATE SIGNONS SPECTACULAR
We have now been having signons for two weeks and the early figures coming in can only be described as fantastic. Park Ridge has moved from 38 teams to 56, and Mt Gravatt will go over the 120 team mark. With these numbers and others, we are hoping for around a 30 % increase in registrations.

WORLD CUP COMPETITION BIG SUCCESS
At Acacia Ridge today, a Futsal World Cup was held. To put it more simply, all the teams that play at Acacia Ridge or Mt Gravatt broke up into their Countries of Origin to compete in a fun tournament for the day that was provided free for the day. Twelve countries entered, and the only cost to the teams was to provide a plate of their countries national food for the others to share. We actually ended up with seven countries providing food, with definitely the best platter provided by South East Asia (mostly Indonesia)…thanks to Saputra Mulyadi’s mum for putting that together.
However special thanks to each teams organizers. It was important the day was kept as fun and didn’t get out of hand and everybody had a great day. So special thanks to Eddie Dzeladinovic(United Nations), South Africa (Shizaad Meman), India (Binu Joseph), Somalia(Zubail Khan), Norway (Tallek Babbe),Peru (Eddie Maradieque), Africa(Idris Jangha), United Kingdom (Jason Maley),England (Steve Tipler),Greece (Will Comonos), Fiji (Moneil Chand), Saputra Mulyadi(South East Asia).
If you go to the website you will see a news article on the day, including photos.
For the results, NORWAY VIKNGS beat PERU in the final, with FIJI and INDIA semifinalists. The Vikings are successful again!!

DAL PONTE VIKINGS WEBSITE
The National League (DAL PONTE VIKINGS) website is slowly coming together. The forum is already up and running, and other areas now updated. The website is www.dalponte.org.au and to participate in the forum you have to register as a member. We are presently putting up the player’s profiles on the site, and these should be completed with a fortnight.

THANKS TO SOME MORE SOCCER CLUBS
I mentioned the help of Mt Gravatt Soccer Club last issue. I have to also thank Bruce Nielsen from Annerley Soccer Club and Steve Tipler from Souths United for also going around and giving out leaflets.
As many people are aware, I am a life member of Souths and it was the first soccer club to become involved in Futsal back in 1984. Numbers over the last two years have dropped off from the club, but I’m happy to say that the early sign ons this year have seen a massive increase in registrations from Souths.
And on the soccer front the club survived its first year in premier league, so final four for next year!

SOCCER BALL SPECIAL FROM BUFFALO SPORTS
Buffalo Sports are having an end of year clearance special on soccer balls. You can go to our website www.qldfutsal.com.au and go to the news item, or ring Ashley on 0411603393.

QUEENSLAND FUTSAL REPRESENTED ON NQ SPORTS TOUR
Charters Towers and Hughendon Futsal Administrator, Nick Robins, has just carried out a three week tour of North Queensland, spreading the ‘gospel’ on Futsal. Nick took part in the North Queensland Sports Foundation Tour, flying to all parts of the gulf and driving to as far out as Mt Isa and Boulia. With Boulia, Normanton, Mt Isa, Winton and Weipa all having quality indoor facilities, we hope some clubs will start out of it.

FUTSAL PLAYER SUCCESS IN OTHER SPORTS
Notice in the Courier Mail on the weekend that 19 year old female racehorse jockey LACEY MORRISON has been signed to ride permanently for a Sydney stable. In the words of racing writer Bart Sinclair:
‘ Even at this early stage of her career Morrison is widely regarded as the best female rider ever in Australia….she finished 6th in the Brisbane jockeys premiership last season and is only two off the lead for this year’s premiership. ‘
Lacey represented Queensland in the National School Futsal Titles twice and appeared on the front page of the Townsville Bulletin last year wearing her Queensland Futsal jersey with the horse she was to ride in the Townsville Cup.
Good luck for the future Lacey and hopefully you’ll ride a Melbourne Cup winner one day.

WHATS COMING UP-DATES TO REMEMBER
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

JOKE ONE
Hours after the end of the world, a border dispute emerged between heaven and hell. The God all mighty, invited Satan for conversations to find a way to resolve this dispute quickly. Satan, proposed a soccer game between heaven and earth. The All Mighty, always fair, told the devil, 'the heat must be affecting your brain, the game would be so one sided, don't you know all the "good" players come to heaven?' the devil, smiling, responded 'yeah, but we've got all the refs'..."

JOKE TWO
The greats Pele and Beckenbauer invite future promising immortal soccer player David Beckham to go fishing. They get in the boat and row right out into the middle of a lake, put down the anchor and start fishing.
After an hour Pele looks at the others and says ‘ I feel like a Brahma (Brazilian beer)’ and gets out of the boat and walks across the water to the shop on the wharf, gets his beer, and walks back.
An hour later Beckenbauer looks at the others and says ‘I feel like a stein of Munchen Lager’ and gets out of the boat, walks across the water to the shop and returns with his beer.
Our Becks is most impressed. He looks at the others and says ‘I’m just going to the shop to get a pint of Tennants ‘, gets out of the boat and immediately falls head first into the water.
Pele looks at Beckenbauer and says ‘ Didn’t you tell him about the stepping stones in the lake?’

JOKE THREE
(Before we start, David Beckham and Posh Spice named their first son ROMEO.)
The great David Beckham has retired and his first son, Romeo, has been signed by Manchester United. Romeo comes home one day and says to his father ‘ Dad, the club has asked me what number I would like to wear …you are the greatest…what do you think?’
His father answered ‘ Wear four out there Romeo..wear four out there. ‘
(It’s a Shakespeare joke , okay ?)

THAT’S ALL FOLKS….. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK