THE Gelvandale sports fields will be a hive of activity this weekend when the Northern Areas FA (Nafa) hosts a national inter-Local Football Association tournament for the second time.
Modelled on the old South African Soccer Federation Kajee Cup competition, the tournament, now in its fifth year, is the brainchild of Nafa officials Vallentine Brink, Godfrey de Kock and Allie Verrie and has been played around the country on a rotational basis.
At the launch last week Brink said the trio had come up with the idea to give players at district level an opportunity to play at a higher level, and to travel to other centres around the country. Currently most players can only aspire to play in the local Safa Vodacom and SAB leagues.
Brink said the tournament had been so successful that they had been inundated with requests from local football associations around the country wishing to participate. However this was not viable.
In addition to Nafa, Cape District, Northern Suburbs (Cape Town), PADSA (Pietermaritzburg), North End FA (East London) and Breidbach (King Williams Town), Makana (Grahamstown) and Nodefa (Uitenhage) have been invited to participate in this year’s senior tournament.
In addition this year sees an u-17 competition to be played alongside the u-15 competition. Nafa are the defending u-15 champions and together with Port Elizabeth FA will be carrying local hopes in the u-17 competition.
To make it a gala weekend for all ages, organisers have arranged a Goodwill Tournament for local football associations in the u-9, u-11 and u-13 divisions.
Supported by the Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture, the tournament is expected to be the biggest ever.
Matches start at 8.30am daily.
The finals will be played at the Glenville FC field on Sunday afternoon.
The daily entry fee is R5 for adults and R3 for children.
Sport
| Sport
