Participating in the tournament has been very popular among the children in Asmara

Tesfa is progressing a lot as a club. It has a huge department of children teams and has now been the first club in Eritrea to introduce Goal ball for blind students as part of the integrated children tournament. All Tesfa activities are for both gender. The players from the senior-, junior- and women teams work as the staff for the tournament in one way or another. In addition, around 70 war-disabled groups are also part of the integrated children tournament as managers and organizers.
The aim of this integrated campaign is:

1. To involve as many children as possible in Eritrea in football in a safe and well organized environment
2. To make physically challenged groups part of the community by integrating them into the football tournament as players (children) or managers (adults)
3. To reach out to more children with special disability and integrate them by introducing a sport activity

Playing in our league is very popular for several reasons. Firstly, the game of football is automatically popular with young people, and playing football in organized in teams even more so. The possibility to play a game with a real, fully inflated leather football is also clearly an incentive. Equally important is the camaraderie that is created in the neighborhood among the participating team members. And finally, there is not so much competition among children in Asmara for things to do in their spare time. It is football or nothing as far as organized events on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Rules of the Children Tournament

1. Each team must consist of 15-17 players, and all players must be registered by name to particiapate. Each player should be given the opportunity to play as much as possible
2. Each coach/manager must write down all game set-ups, results and names of the ones playing
3. Each coach/manager must be present during the
   arrangements/games/practices full time
4. If a player wants to transfer to another team, both teams must agree. Otherwise, the transfer can not happen
5. If a player older than the age group is participating in a game, the team using the player automatically looses the game
6. During a game the team is free to swap players as much as they like
7. Team suits that have been provided by Tesfa should be stored at the managers’ place and only handed out for use during the tournament games
8. For the age group 8-11 the game lasts for 30 minutes. For the age group 11-12 and 12-13 the game lasts 40 minutes