The KwaZulu-Natal provincial qualifiers for the 2012 Kia Champ into the Arena five-a-side tournament were held at the Crusaders Sports Club, Durban North this weekend with three more sides booking their place in the national play-offs.
The overall winners will head off to the global finals in Warsaw, Poland, on 27 June 2012 – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the victors.
The Untouchables lived up to their name as they were crowned the KwaZulu-Natal provincial winners with a 3-2 defeat of Durban Classic in the decider on Sunday, bringing to a close a competition that had seen 32 sides enter the field on Saturday.
Both finalists advance to the national finals to be held in Gauteng next month, along with Leopards, who thumped Spirit Coolers 4-1 in the third-place play-offs to also book their ticket to Johannesburg.
Kia Champ into the Arena ambassador Andre Arendse says he was once again impressed with the talent on show in Durban, following on from Cape Town a fortnight ago.
“It is fantastic that Kia is giving this wonderful platform for young players to showcase their talent and the KwaZulu-Natal sides showed a lot of skill and physicality on the court,” says Arendse. “It is heartening to see players have such passion for the game and the standard for me was superb.”
The trio of qualifiers from KwaZulu-Natal join Western Cape entrants Guess Who, Mamba Fives and Galacticos in the national finals, with just the three sides from Gauteng to be added to the list of entrants. That province’s qualification tournament takes place on the weekend of June 2-3 at the Italian Sports Club in Bedfordview.
The top three teams from the three provincial qualifiers then meet in a nine-team tournament to determine the outright winner in the National Finals on 10 June, 2012, scheduled to also be held at the Italian Sports Club in Bedfordview.
The winners will take part in the drama of the Euro 2012 competition that is being co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
Participants wishing to take part must be male and over the age of 18 and never have played in any professional indoor football league in the past. Players should also have all relevant documents that would allow them to travel to Poland for the global finals from 25 to 30 June 2012.
The global finals of the Kia Champ into the Arena tournament will consist of 15 teams from around the world, and will be staged in Warsaw on 27 June 2012, with the team representing South Africa spending four days in the city, during which time they will also take in the first semi-final of Euro 2012 at the magnificent newly-built National Stadium on 28 June 2012.
