THE return of the women’s competition will be one of the major highlights of this year’s Bula Business House Futsal Cup, officially launched yesterday at Coffee Culture, Raojibhai Patel Street, Suva.
The launch featured the official handover of major sponsorship from Design and Creative Building Solutions and Design Creative Scaffolding, as well as the pool draw for the 32 men’s and six women’s teams competing this year.
Event organiser Alan Kumar said the women’s category had been reintroduced following strong demand after it was not held last season.
“As you can see, last competition season, we didn’t have the women’s competition. So we have reintroduced after a lot of requests and demand,” Kumar said.
He said the return of the category would add another dimension to the tournament while creating an opportunity for women to compete and showcase their skills.
Unlike the men’s competition, the women’s category will have no entry fee, with organisers aiming to remove barriers to participation. “We are not charging any entry fees for the women because we believe there’s a platform where we give equal platform for women to compete alongside the men’s category as well,” he said.
The women’s competition will also be open to players outside the participating businesses, allowing teams to register players regardless of their employment.
“For the women, it’s open. That means anyone can come and play. You just have to register,” Kumar said. With between $3000 and $5000 allocated as prize money for the women’s category, Kumar believes the competition can become a pathway for talented players to progress into higher levels of the sport.
“From future, they can play at the national level and at the professional level as well,” he said.
