It was at the start of the summer this year that four amateur footballers from four different countries met to discuss how to create a diverse and organized expat football league here in Shenzhen. They were all aware that in this regard Shenzhen was a long way behind other major cities in China such as Beijing , Shanghai , Guangzhou and Hong Kong which have been running such competitions for years, in some cases decades. They agreed that the idea behind the league was to create a platform for the expat teams in Shenzhen, of which there are many, to compete and to build a footballing community that would cross cultural barriers that had existed until that point. Thus, The Shenzhen International Amateur Football League (SIAFL) was born, as well as a charter to govern the rules and organization of the league. It was decided that the league should be a non profit organization leaving it to concentrate on improving the level of amateur football in the city.
Each person in the group was assigned a task and things began to move quickly. By August the league had eight teams who wanted to compete. The league will run for two seasons a year with a winter break for Christmas and Chinese New Year as well as a summer break during the two hottest months of the year.
Lunatics FC, SZ Tigers FC, Inter SZ, World United FC, The Dog and Duck FC, The Wild Geese, Colombian Dream and SWIS are the teams taking part in the inaugural season which kicks off on Monday September 2nd with all the games taking place at Lian Hua Shan football pitches in Futian District. The format is 8 a-side, with each team playing once a week for fourteen weeks. The team with the most points after the last game of the season (December 9) will be crowned The SIAFL champions, Autumn 2013.
Any teams looking to enter the Spring 2014 competition are encouraged to visit the website, as are players looking for teams to play for and of course fans and people who would like to know more about the amateur expat football scene in Shenzhen. www.siafl.com.
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