The aim is to create a girls’ championship in the long term

LINZ. What has long been common practice for boys will also become a reality for girls in the future: a separate championship competition in which enthusiastic young footballers can compete in the respective age group. “The long-term goal is that we can think about running a girls’ league. But at the moment we’re not that far along yet,” says Manfred Feichtinger from the Upper Austria women’s football department. Football Association.

With his latest idea he has made the first impetus for this. For the second year in a row, the head of the girls’ hobby league has organized the Girls Cup in cooperation with the association: a youth format in which all-girl teams aged 10 to 14 compete against each other. Because the tournaments became a success story, Feichtinger recently tried to get even younger girls interested in the sport. The Youngstar Cup, a tournament for eight to eleven year old girls, took place in Lambach at the beginning of September. “The feedback was positive. All the teams were so enthusiastic that they registered for the next Youngstar Cup on October 8th in Neuhofen/Innkreis.”

What’s special about these tournaments: “Of course, clubs or syndicates that have a lot of girls in certain age ranges also take part. But we also have some wild teams. That means girls who aren’t registered with a club yet and just want to play football.”

For some it is a “successful change from their youth games with the boys”, for others it is “a dream that they can have their first experience of football against girls,” says Feichtinger. The most important credo: “As few obligations as possible, as much fun as possible.”