Rink football, Indoor football or Arena football, call it what you may, but this form of soccer with rules modified to make it suitable for play within basketball gymnasiums or other indoor sports arenas is slowly but surely gaining popularity around the world.
Some of the rules are similar to FIFA Soccer, the only important differences being that players have to wear rubber soled shoes (studs are not permitted), the field of play is small and the goalposts are tiny. Very often rebound walls or nets are available on either side of the posts that allow the ball back into the field of play. The ball is 'live' when rebounding off the walls or nets. Other rules with regards to the number of players, shootout, permissible height of ball when in play and match timings are at the discretion of the organizers. The 3rd OPEN DON BOSCO RINK FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT 2005 is one such tournament being organized for the Indian Community in Kuwait during the holy month of Ramadan. This mega event in it's 3rd year of inception is organized by the Don Bosco Past Pupils Associations - Kuwait Chapter and will be conducted on a League cum knock out basis at the Indian English Academy School (Salmiya) from 5th October 2005 onwards, almost daily from 6:00pm until 8:00pm. A total of 20 team have confirmed participation and have been clubbed into 4 pools as below:- POOL A : DON BOSCO BLUE, HELLO BOYZ, X PACT, KIH, BOMBAY BOYS POOL B: COMPANEROS RED, BIG JOE'S , THE SHOWMEN, MALAD BOYS, TEAM X POOL C: COMPANEROS - YELLOW, SOCCER MANIACS, FOOTY FANTASTIC, WINNER, TEAM Y POOL D: DON BOSCO WHITE, GAME BOYZ, AGAM, SPEED 7, TEAM Z Matches scheduled for Wednesday, 5th October 2005: 6:00pm DON BOSCO BLUE V/S HELLO BOYZ POOL A 6:30PM COMPANEORS RED V/S BIG JOES POOL B 7:00PM COMPANEORS YELLOW V/S SOCCER MANIACS POOL C 7:30PM X PACTS V/S K I H POOL A 8:00PM DON BOSCO WHITE V/S GAME BOYZ POOL D Skill, stamina, and teamwork are key factors is Rink Football, and during the last few days the teams have been practicing hard to adapt to these requirements. Hopefully I will be able to keep you updated of the results and happenings on daily basis. Julio Cardoso Kuwait
