Inaugural Mauritian Futsal Cup Announced!

In the aftermath of the RMIT Soccer Challenge 2010, and not appeased by the recent re-instatement of the friendly Saturday morning futsal gathering of "Sport Du Samedi", Melbourne-based Mauritian players have been calling for another Champions Cup tournament. Not to disappoint, the organizers have announced a tournament. However, instead of announcing the Champions Cup Winter 2010 Tournament as expected, the organizers have surprised all with a promotional video of a new tournament entitled the Mauritian Futsal Cup.

The organizers state that the new tournament is in celebration of the 19th FIFA World Cup and that they drew inspiration from the recent RMIT Soccer Challenge 2010 tournament in which three of four Mauritian-based teams qualified from approximately 40 teams to make it to the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, two of the teams, Ban Go-Goat and Nioukyen FC, faced each other in the quarter-finals and Ban Go-Goat was knocked-out of the tournament. In further irony, Nioukyen FC faced the other Mauritian-based team, The Replacements, in the semi-finals. The Replacements defeated Nioukyen FC and went on to win the tournament and once again emphasizing their supremacy as back-to-back winners of the RMIT Soccer Challenge. In fact, the promotional video for the Mauritian Futsal Cup 2010 was created solely from video footage from the RMIT Soccer Challenge 2010 tournament.

Although the tournament name exclusively refers to Mauritians, the organizers clearly articulate that the tournament is not limited to Mauritian teams. Having lived and prospered in the multicultural Australia, they felt it was important to imbue ethic inclusiveness in the tournament and, thus, have kept the tournament open to both Mauritians and non-Mauritians.

The organizers will use the tried and tested Champions Cup Tournament formula for the Mauritian Futsal Cup 2010 and have provided the following details about the tournament.

Tournament details
Mauritian Futsal Cup 2010 Tournament
5-a-side futsal tournament
Sat 3 July 2010
0900-1600

Important dates
Friday 11 June 2010: Team registration deadline
Friday 18 June 2010: Team payment deadline

Team Registration
To register your team, please fill in the form at:
http://bit.ly/MFC2010

Team size
Team sizes are strictly limited to the following.
Minimum: 5 players
Maximum: 8 players

Team Cost
By Friday 18 June 2010: Discounted early bird team registration cost of $120.
After Friday 18 June 2010: Team registration cost of $150

Tournament Format
The exact tournament format will be confirmed at a later date as it depends on the number of teams competing. However, in general, the tournament will consist of:

1. Qualifying round - a single round robin competition. All teams will participate in this round.

2. Elimnation round - a knock-out competition. Only a number of top ranked teams from the qualifying round will progress to this round.

Please note: Tournament organisers reserve the right to alter the tournament format.

Tournament Rules
The tournament rules will be the same as the original Champions Cup Winter 2009 Tournament rules.

Referees
In order to keep the cost of the tournament low, every team will need to provide referees for some games. The referees can be one of the players and they will not referee any of their own team's matches.

Enquiries
Please send all enquiries to:
championscuptournamentATgmail.com
(replace "AT" with "@").

With the official announcement of the Mauritian Futsal Cup 2010, and given the excitement caused by the promotional video, the tournament organizers are as excited as the players. Planning has been well underway and, as with the Champions Cup Tournaments, they are hoping for a great and successful tournament. Organizers have also mentioned that they will likely have another surprise along the way.

The introduction of the Mauritian Futsal Cup marks a new era in Melbourne-based Mauritian soccer and futsal. It is the culmination of many years of Mauritians playing soccer and futsal in the Melbourne and provides a great opportunity to formally test long-standing friendly rivalries between Mauritian teams as they vie for supremacy amongst their countrymen and teams from their adopted country of Australia. As teams contest for victory, one thing is for certain: every team will be hungry and determined to be crowned as the first Mauritian Futsal Cup champion!