The Copa Tito Vilanova organised by FCBEscola Fukuoka has introduced a new model of competition to the Japanese city. The U8 and U10 tournament held on the FC Barcelona soccer school’s premises brought together 23 teams that played according to an unfamiliar system in the country. And the two FCBEscola teams ended up winning the U8 category and coming second in U10.
The local project director, Óscar Coca, said that “the aim of this tournament is to get Japanese athletes to learn from a new experience by playing according to the rules we use in Catalonia.”
The tournament was played 7-a-side, rather than 8-a-side as is the norm at this age level in Japan, and also used a different offside rule. In Japan players, the offside rule is enforced anywhere in the opposition’s half, while at Catalan schools players can only be called offside when inside a smaller delimited zone close to the penalty box.
U8 Competition (7 teams):
vs Naka 3-0
vs Soleil 2-1
vs FCCF 2-0
FINAL vs Street 5-2
U10 Competition (16 teams):
vs Ori 6-0
vs Street 4-0
vs Elitu-9 2-0
FINAL vs Itazuke 2-3
