Fiji Football Association launching its first-ever women’s futsal tournament

Fiji joins a list of countries inaugurating women’s futsal competitions. The association announced its plans last year, and when their Competitions Manager Amitesh Pal was questioned about the impact futsal development could have on the availability of women/ girls for Football, he said, “they didn’t fear a shortage of women footballers in the country due to the number of interests shown.”

Pal said women’s development is expected to gradually improve due to the number of resources being pumped into the sport,

“And gradually every year the number of players in women’s football as well as for futsal will increase and that’s a good sign for development in the country”, reported FBC News

The Fiji Football Association will launch the women’s Introductory Futsal Competition next week which will be played alongside the Men’s Extra Supermarket Futsal Inter District Championship 2022. From February 2 to 5, at the Vodafone Arena in Suva, which has a capacity of just over 3,000 spectators, and will host both tournaments.

The president of the Fiji Football Association, Rajesh Patel, was in charge of announcing this first women’s futsal competition in the country. Four teams will compete in the tournament: Suva, Nasinu, Lami, and Tailevu Naitasiri. The matches will be played in a robin-round competition and the final will be held on Sunday 5, ahead of the men’s final of the Extra Supermarket Futsal IDC 2022.

Now that FIFA has announced its intentions to develop a women’s world cup, it will be interesting to see when Fiji launches a women’s national futsal team.

The second men’s tournament was planned to be held at the end of last year and that is why 2022 is included in the official name (Extra Supermarket Futsal Inter District Championship 2022). It could not be held in 2022 due to the non-availability of a venue to play this championship, which was postponed to the beginning of February 2023, when the Vodafone Arena will be available. This week also took place the draw for the three groups:

(Source: Kunal Keshneel | Fijilive.com)

Group A is made up of Ba, Nasinu and Rewa. As for Group B, the runners-up of the 2021 edition, Lami, face Nadi and Tailevu Naitasiri. Finally, the champions of the last edition, Suva, are framed together with Tavua, Savusvau and Labasa. The Fiji Football Association confirmed that the winner of the Extra Supermarket Futsal IDC 2022 will receive a prize of $4,500 while the runner-up will be awarded $2,500.

(Suva celebrating the 2021 Futsal IDC title. Source: FBC News)

The Fijian Broadcasting Corporation will be bringing the four-day tournament live & free on FBC Sports HD channel. Overseas viewers will pay $15UD for the whole competition. It is yet unknown if the women’s Introductory Futsal Competition will be broadcast.

Futsal Focus