Valley Road will be filled with the sight of hundreds of children playing football this weekend as Valley Road once again plays host to the 2019 National SAP festival.
The event, which will showcase some of the best under 12 and 13 players in the country, will feature teams from around Australia in three days of nonstop footballing action taking place from Friday 15 February to Sunday 17 February.
The aim of the festival is to provide young players in this age group a high level of competition to demonstrate their skills they have been developing over the past 3-4 years. This festival also gives local players a taste of interstate competition in preparation to them moving into youth football in the coming years.
Five Tasmanian sides will be competing (Devonport Strikers, Olympia Warriors, Cradle Coast, South Hobart and a Tasmanian TSP Girls side) as well as 9 teams from interstate coming from South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Each of the competing sides will play two games a day for six in total over the course of the festival with the Valley Road pitches set to be filled with talented kids showing off their acquired skills.
With such a wealth of talented youngsters on display, the festival is sure to attract the attention of A-League talent scouts who will be looking to identify future stars of the game in Australia.
[caption id="attachment_4250" align="alignnone" width="3905"]
Solstice Photography[/caption]
Solstice Photography[/caption]
Football Federation CEO Matt Bulkeley said he was looking forward to seeing the teams from around the country coming to Devonport for the event, which is being held in the City for the fourth year running.
"The National SAP festival has become one of the highlights of the season. It's one of the best events we host as a Federation and it continues to go from strength to strength. The increased number of mainland teams participating this season is a reflection of how successful it has been and the attraction it holds."
''Events like these really helps put Tasmania on the national stage and is a great event to showcase the future stars of the game in Tasmania. It will be a great experience for our young Tasmanian players to test themselves against the mainland sides and we look forward to hosting them in Devonport for the weekend."
The games will be played 9 on 9 on smaller sized pitches, with games consisting of 2 x 25 minute halves, encouraging players to take the game on and show off their skills. Whilst scores will be kept in the games, there is no championship handed out, with having fun and playing in a positive manner the priority.
