This past weekend, Lithuania presented her national adults team for European Mini Football Championship. And on the 10th to 14th of October, this team is going to be playing in Crete, an island in Greece. They are going to be playing against Italian, Turkish and Greek football teams.
The European Mini Football Championship has only been going on for two years, and this year it is the first time for Lithuanians to play in this championship. Our country’s team is made of MFL (minifootball league) players, who have already been practicing and are planning to do well.
‘’We are going to Crete to play and represent our country, we are not going there to be typical tourists in a beautiful country like Greece. Even though the team is made up of non professional players and only people who truly love football that does not mean that we are not going to try our best. We are looking forward to great games’’ – says Kęstutis Bagonas, Lithuanian team’s administrator.
The European Mini Football Championship has the official international MiniFootball federation’s (EMF) rules, which follow a format of 6 a side, the same as the leagues in Lithuania, which may just bring its own benefits. ‘’Since in our minifootball league we play 6×6, we think this might turn out to be a good thing in Greece for our team. Also, this kind of journey is not a cheap thing for us and we are glad that we got some support from ‘’Fanu“ stadium and our official technical partner, JOMA.’’ – said Kęstutis
The coach of this team is Jurijus Tarakanovas, the team’s captain is our top scorer and mini football league’s player Martynas Rašinskas (28 goals). Our Lithuanian team is made up of 9 players, a goalkeeper, the coach who is also playing, and two team’s administrators; there will also be one referee who travels.