The annual Walking Football Tournament will be held at the Tuggerah Soccer 5s venue on Saturday, March 16, at 9.30am, sponsored by Central Coast Ancient Mariners and Central Coast Mariners.
Thirty six teams from all over Australia will compete, with more than 200 mature age players.
The Central Coast Ancient Mariners started playing Walking Football in 2021 and now has more than 45 members who play socially every Sunday at 8.30am at Tuggerah Soccer 5s.
The rules are simple; you can’t run, you can’t handle the ball, you can’t head the ball, you can’t make aggressive tackles and you have to have a lot of fun.
The finer points are if you fall over, the game is stopped and if the ball is travelling higher than 1.2m it is a free kick to the opposition.
There are six in a team with a couple of subs.
The goalkeeper has to stay inside the penalty area, which has a 5m radius and the opposition can’t enter this area or a penalty will result.
This year the Walking Football World Cup will be played in Chesterfield UK and Australia will be sending three women’s and four men’s teams in age groups from 50 to 70+.