New sport: Bubble soccer tournament concludes

“We wanted to do something to promote sports without being too taxing for students and risking injuries," NUST student

LAHORE: Students from 12 universities participated in a two-day bubble soccer tournament at Shaikh Zayed Medical College on Sunday.

Talking to The Express Tribune, organisers Usama Awais and Musa Khalil said that the idea was to start an outdoor sporting activity which did not take a physical toll on students.

Usama, a student from the NUST said, “We wanted to do something to promote sports without being too taxing for students and risking injuries. We found bubble soccer to be perfect for the purpose. It is entertaining and there is no chance of getting injured.”

The tournament, called the Zorb Futsal, saw the participation of teams from Shaikh Zayed Medical College Lahore, the COMSATS, the NUST, Aitchison College, the FAST University, University of Central Punjab (UCP) and King Edward Medical University. Khalil said that the game had been introduced for the first time in Pakistan. “There are five players in each team and is played in a much smaller area than football. It has the similar rules, however, and players wear Zorb balls to protect themselves,” he said.

He said, “Today we are mostly cooped up in our rooms and the only games we play are on a computer. We wanted students to come out and do something fun. A group of students came up with the idea and we pooled in money to arrange the event. Shaikh Zayed Medical College provided us grounds to hold the tournament.”

The tournament will end on Monday (today). Shaikh Zayed Medical College Chairman Dr Fareed Ahmed Khan will be the chief guest.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2016.