Qantas NYC Boys Championship this weekend
With our World Cup heroes set to arrive in Australia next week for the Powerade Cup match against Paraguay and the Asian Cup Qualifier against Bahrain, the next generation of Socceroos will take to the Coffs Harbour International Stadium from this Saturday for the 2006 National Youth Championships for Boys.
The 2006 Qantas National Youth Championships for Boys is a week-long tournament that runs from the 30th September to the 7th October 2006 and will see 384 of the Australia-s best youth footballers line-up for 24 teams over two age groups (Under-14 & Under-15) to compete for the title of National Champions. On an individual level, all players will all be looking to impress for potential selection in the Qantas Joeys Squad (Australian Under-17 Men-s National Team), the first step towards selection in the Socceroos. It will be in the front of all players minds that many of the current Socceroos began their football careers by representing their respective State/Territory Federation at the very same tournament not that long ago.
The 24 teams will represent Capital Football, Football Federation Northern Territory, Football Federation Queensland (Metropolitan & Country), Football Federation South Australia, Football Federation Tasmania, Football Federation Victoria (Metropolitan & Country), Football West, Northern NSW Football and Soccer NSW (Metropolitan & Country).
In addition twenty (20) top young referees from around Australia will also be put through their paces as part of the Football Federation Australia-s referee development program. Just like the players, each referee will be assessed and identified for higher duties in the future.
Australian National Youth Coach Ange Postecoglou is well aware of the significance of the Championships.
"The Qantas National Youth Championships is an important event in the Australian Football calendar", said Postecoglou.
"This tournament gives us, as coaches, the first opportunity to identify the Socceroos of the future in serious competition. From my point of view I can look at those players that will largely form the next group of Qantas Joeys," concluded Postecoglou.
About the Qantas National Youth Championships
The Qantas National Youth Championships aims to identify potential male & female national team players, and also provides players an opportunity to be selected for Hyundai A-League clubs, the Australian Institute of Sport or various State/Territory Sports Institute Programs. It also assists State/Territory Federations to appraise the effectiveness of their development programs, while players can evaluate their own individual skills against other elite players.
In summary, the Qantas National Youth Championships provides a number of significant outcomes which include:
- Identifying potential national youth team players
- Identifying potential players for the AIS and State/Territory elite development programs
- State/Territory Federations evaluating the performance of their elite development programs
- Players evaluate their individual skills against other elite players
- Identifying potential high performance referees
Many of Australia-s best players have come through the Qantas National Youth Championship ranks, who then attended institutes/Academies, and have then gone on to become professional footballers and represent the Socceroos.
The 2006 Qantas National Youth Championships for Girls (Under-17 & Under-15) were held in July at Coffs Harbour.
For information regarding the Fixtures, Results and News from the 2006 Qantas National Youth Championships for Boys please go to the Feature article on the Community Landing Page or click on the link below: