Places for Trinity’s most popular social sporting event, five-a-side soccer, sold out within an hour this year, according to organiser Tom Comer. 50 places for teams were up for grabs, with registration costing €100 per team. Due to demand an extra eight spots were negotiated from Trinity Sport, which duly sold out almost instantly.
For those that don’t know, five-a-side is a modified form of soccer where five players per team (four outfield players and a goalie) play on a small pitch with simplified rules to help the game flow. Free kicks are awarded instead of corners and there is no offside. In Trinity, games last for two 30-minute halves, are self-refereed and are played in Botany Bay or the Sport Hall above the gym.
Due to the amount of teams competing, matches are played Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, with around 29 matches taking place each week. The 58 teams are split into five leagues of 10 and one league of 8, and are graded based on ability in order to promote a fair but competitive atmosphere.
While organising the league itself takes a lot of work, Comer is currently looking at organising matches between Trinity and UCD and DCU teams: “we’re trying to get competitions between DCU and UCD lined up because they have a five-a-side league and in the past we have played games against them.”
Division 1
4.5 aside, CSB, Csbgm, DUAFC, FC Twente Benson, Stella FC, TP Titans, TikiTaka Embassy, Top Shaggers, Wanana
Division 2
Armamentum Celtic, Bird 747 Pie, Close Contacts FC, FantabEdozie, George BESSt FC, Matletico Madrid, MedShaggers FC, Umbros, Whitecaps, Zindabad FC
Division 3
AFC Deniz, AFC Billy Blargo, Barely Athletic FC, Borussia Snortmund, Champagne Chassis, Mathletes, Meath4Sam, Philanthropist XI, Trinbreds FC, Two Girls One Klopp
Division 4
Brian Munich, Egg Fried Reus, Freded Fish, Naoise Team 2.5, No RISC No Reward, Paedihatrics, Run Time Error FC, The Essence XI, The Shady Bunch, Unathletico Madrid
Division 5
AFC Trinitones, Arts Low Block AFC, Berkely’s Boys, Big Kahuna FC, Chiken Chasers, Linac Utd, Newry Monchengladbach, River Dodder Rodents, TP Traitors, The Squad
Division 6
Brittos Boys, GMBallers Revived, LLM Giants, Laszlo Football Utd, The Galloping Stallions, The Vincibles, To Be Decided, Kilberry Rovers