It’s been a busy time for the Irish Minifootball Association since we were accepted into the European Minifootball Association (EMF) in the spring.
Work has been going on behind the scenes with the aim of recruiting as many Irish League providers as possible to the IMA as Minifootball head Declan Ford explains: “Getting accepted into the EMF was the first step on our journey – and a very, very important one.
“Now we are able to flourish and get as many of the thousands of minifootballers in Ireland on board as we possibly can.”
One key area that Declan is keen to develop is the participation of female players in Ireland and he believes there is much scope for this to happen. “We know how popular women’s football is becoming,” he said. “And we have seen with the way that Katie Taylor has become such a national icon after the Olympics that there is such an appetite for women’s sport in general. We are certain that we can grow the sport exponentially in Ireland.”
Finally, Declan and the rest of the IMA staff are busy putting the finishing touches to the Irish National Team trials. Ireland will be represented in this year’s miniEURO2013 event in Crete. This marks the first time that an Irish team will have competed at European level. Details for the trials day are still to be finalised, but Declan said everyone connected with the event was “very excited” by it and admitted it will be a tremendous honour to compete.
Details of the trials will be revealed in the next month.