Proves to be a great success
Ahead of the festive break, the Gibraltar Football Association organised a very successful Christmas Tournament for all of Gibraltar’s young footballers from the ages of six to sixteen.
Under the guidance of the association’s new Youth Football leadership team, the weekend long tournament was centered around a community and family atmosphere with fun themed activities on offer, off the pitch, in the Victoria Stadium’s MUGA area as well as food and refreshment provided for all players taking part in the tournament. The aim of the weekends was a simple one – to give Gibraltar’s young footballers an enjoyable competitive footballing send-off ahead of their Christmas break.
As is customary, at all Gibraltar FA organised youth football events and matches, Association Delegates were on hand to ensure the tournament run smoothly and First Aiders were in attendance at all times.
In what proved to be something of a first in youth football locally, in recent times, the strongest teams in certain age groups were moved up a ‘level’ (age group) to play against older children. This would allow them to challenge their skill sets and also to make each tournament more and more competitive.
Depending on the amount of teams and players, each age group had its own bespoke tournament in the traditional 5 or 7 aside formats and tailored at giving each team the maximum amount of playing time.
Tournament organisers Scott Wiseman and Jansen Moreno were delighted with the way the tournament and weekend as a whole went, with over 400 youngsters taking part across all the different age groups, and are already looking at laying the groundwork for future tournaments throughout year and commented:
“On behalf of everyone at the Gibraltar FA, we would like to thank everyone involved in the tournament for making the weekend so successful and especially to our match officials, referees and delegates who dealt with the whole weekend programme tremendously given the different formats, age groups and matches.
A huge thanks must also go to our clubs who instantly bought into the idea and to all of the parents for supporting the tournament throughout the weekend. We are already looking at how we can incorporate tournaments like this on a more regular basis throughout this year and beyond so that we can begin to ensure our youngsters are playing as much football as possible.”
