Football League Trust hail success of Kinder+Sport Futsal Cup
Thursday 17 March 2016 17:41, UK
The Football League Trust are hoping to build on the success of the first ever national Kinder+Sport Futsal Cup tournament.
Thousands of children under the age of 16 from 450 schools across the country took part in the competition, which came to an exciting conclusion this week as Wolverhampton Wanderers triumphed in the girls section, while Hartlepool United took the honours for the boys.
The Kinder +Sports Futsal Cup in partnership with The Football League Trust was delivered on a national scale through the 72 Football League clubs.
Mike Evans, director of operations at the Football League Trust, said: "This new national futsal cup competition has been a great way to keep older children involved in sport and we grateful to Ferrero and the Kinder + Sport project for their support.
"The programme encourages children and young people to make sport and active play part of everyday life, and we look forward to expanding the programme and reaching thousands more children in years to come."
The first stage of this year's new national competition saw schools compete at a local level for the right to represent their Football League club in the later stages.
The winners then went through no less than eight regional finals, playing at inspiring venues such as the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and the FA's elite training facility at St Georges Park.
This resulted in eight regional winners from both the boys and girls teams then emerged on finals day at the Derby Arena.
Derby County first team players Marcus Olsson and Nick Blackman attended the event as well as Birmingham City Ladies' first team goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley.
Blackman said: "It was fantastic to see so many kids involved and the standard of football was incredible. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these player in the professional game in a few years time."
