ENGAbout Minifoobal
Football is the number one sport in the world. It is the most
emotional, attracts enormous amounts of viewers and generates gigantic
revenues. Yet the big football is not the only one. A little brother also
exists. It is called minifootball, and despite being small, it is also a
terrifically exciting and fascinating sport.
The term 'minifootball' means small-sided football open for
amateur players. The teams consist of 5 to 8 players (the most popular
configuration in Lithuania is seven against 7, while in official championships
it's six against 6). The game consists of two halves of 20 or 25 minutes each.
Minifootball in Lithuania
We started in 2013 in Vilnius with "Minifootball league". After seven seasons, the League is one of the biggest in Lithuania, with more than 20 teams and over 400 players. In addition to regular championship matches, Super Cup and Cup matches are played every season.
The League also organizes one-day minifootball festivals - Feb. 16 - "Charity Tournament to Commemorate the Independence of Lithuania" and the tournament, dedicated to Champions League Final – "The other MiniChampions league".
In 2014, the Lithuanian MiniFootball Association was established in order to start popularizing this variety of football throughout Lithuania. Since 2015, LMFA has organized the tournament "Minifootball Tour through Lithuania", with which it visited many Lithuanian cities, and the geography of the tournament participants was wide - from Vilnius to Klaipeda, From Jieznas to Gelgaudiškis.
In November 2016, after discussions and preparatory homework, LMFA presented the idea of the Lithuanian Championship to teams that more or less participated in the one-day tournaments "Minifootball Tour through Lithuania" organized in 2015 and 2016. Thus, in the spring of 2017, the inaugural Lithuanian minifootball 7 vs. 7 Championship started. 12 teams from 9 different Lithuanian cities took part in the first championship. Like the 2017 and 2018 championships, the 2019 championship takes place in stages in different Lithuanian cities.
Lithuanian minifootbal in the World
Since 2013, the name of Lithuania has been noticeable in the international minifootball arena, when the team of the Lithuanian MiniFootball Association debuted at the European Championship in Crete. In 2014, the LMFA team played in Montenegro, in 2015 in Croatia, and in 2016 it was one of the best and most memorable show in Hungary.In 2017 and 2018, a break was made due to lack of funds, and in 2019, the LMFA team returned to the international arena and to Crete, where the World Cup took place in October! And came back with a bang! Morocco, Belgium and Wales were defeated in the group stage, to Poland was lost and the TOP 16 stage was reached for the first time in history! The top 16 lost to the English six after a persistent fight.