Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Nagoya: The fourth Japan Football Association’s Kids Soccer Festival was recently concluded at the Nagoya Dome baseball stadium as Japanese continued their celebration of AFC Grassroots Year 2013.
A total of 97 teams and 1,200 children took part in the festival which was held in morning and afternoon sessions on 10 small pitches of 15m X 30m dimension set at the stadium.
Boys and girls from the local high school teams played the role of referees while former Japan national goalkeeper Nobuyuki Kojima was the JFA Ambassador and entertained the participants at the festival.
One of the coaches who brought his charges from a kindergarten to take part in the event happily told the JFA: “Our kids at the kindergarten play football once a week. We are all happy to participate in such a nice event and play games with various teams.
“The kids enjoyed the festival very much because they got to play with various kids from other places. We are looking forward to more opportunities to join such events.”
The footballs festivals are designed for children under six years of age with games of eight or less kids per team and have been taking place all over Japan for the past 10 years since 2003 as part of the JFA Kids Programme.
The first three festivals were held in Fukuoka, Tokyo and Toyama with more events to take place in major domes and football stadiums until the end of the year.
Through the AFC Grassroots Year and also AFC Grassroots day which fell on May 15, the AFC is encouraging Member Associations to organise activities to promote and emphasise that football is accessible and socially beneficial to everyone. It also provides a strong foundation that will allow players to progress to the elite level.
Photo: JFA