This weekend, the Spring Family Football Tournaments, sponsored by the EIKA Group, which attract hundreds of participants every year, kick off in Vilnius. Organized by the Football Club Ataka and the Charity Foundation Padėk gatvės vaikams, the tournaments will take place in Justiniškės, Lazdynai and Vilkpėdė-Naujamiestis for three consecutive weekends in May.
Over 180 teams participated in the tournaments last year.
The idea to bring families together through football came to Gediminas Tvarijonas, head of the charity foundation “Help the Street Children”, back in 2018, when he noticed that Lithuania lacked active leisure events for families. Thus, the annual family football tournaments were born.
“Seven years ago, we started with regional tournaments and quickly realized how much we needed such events. Although this idea is certainly not new today, it must be admitted that even now there are not enough team sports events in which the whole family can participate, so it is nice that we can fill this important niche,” says G. Tvarijonas.
Last year, the “EIKA Big Family Football Tournament” was held in June, and as many as 40 teams, consisting of almost 200 players, competed in it. According to Domas Dargis, CEO of “EIKA Group”, which has been sponsoring the tournament for five years, such initiatives are important both at the family and community level, which is why the company became the general sponsor of the tournament this year.
“Children are our future, so their employment, sports activity and emotional well-being are extremely important to us. Nevertheless, this initiative is not just for children – here all family members learn to cooperate and make new acquaintances with people in their area, which strengthens the entire city community. We are happy to be able to contribute to such a meaningful initiative again and invite all families to have fun together,” says D. Dargis.
Motivates children to play sports and fosters family values
The tournaments are organized by the football club “Ataka” with the support and charity fund “Help Street Children”. The tournaments motivate children to play sports, encourage active leisure and contribute to the cultivation of family values.
Family soccer tournaments differ most from regular tournaments in their rules – the matches are played in a 3-on-3 format, but at least one female player and a child aged five to fourteen must be on the field at any one time. Moreover, goals scored by fathers do not count, and the results of the matches are not recorded, so there are simply no losers.
“In our format, we try to teach children not to be afraid of making mistakes, and parents to become partners, not leaders. Although everyone competes, we do not count the final result, so there is no additional pressure, and we do not count the goals scored by fathers, so that children and mothers can reveal themselves more. In this simple way, family members learn communication, listening, teamwork and begin to support each other more, and at the end of the event we award all teams and we have a great atmosphere,” explains G. Tvarijonas.
The spring family football tournaments will take place over three consecutive weekends. The first one will start on May 17 at the Justiniškės Taikos Progymnasium football field, on May 23 the competition will move to the Lazdynai Sausio 13-oji Progymnasium stadium, and the football festival will culminate on May 31 with a tournament at the Vilkpėdė-Naujamiestis Gerosios Vilties Progymnasium stadium.