Seven-a-side football in Falkirk: Lava Cup next year to be bigger than ever

No fewer than 20 teams, four more than this year, covering 10 nations from two continents are set to take part in the 2025 edition - featuring games of 12 minutes each - with local interest coming via the Falkirk FFIT T8 squad.

The event is aimed at boosting players’ physical health and mental wellbeing, with invitees always including two teams of players who usually have no access to football. Teams always have the chance to meet up again with opposition squads to play matches at a later date.

Event organiser Marc Boal, 52, who has laid on the Lava Cup in Aberdeen, Bo’ness and Falkirk respectively in each of the past three years, is understandably excited at the prospect of a tournament which will be bigger and better than ever.

The Clydebank native, who currently works as a chef on a ferry in Orkney, explained the competition’s origins to the Falkirk Herald: “I do a lot of stuff with Icelandic football. So I’ve been bringing a lot of Icelandic teams over to Scotland for quite a lot of years.

"I’ve had a big involvement with Icelandic football and have written a couple of books about the game over there. With the team that I was bringing over, one year we decided just to have a tournament.

"So we had a pilot event at Cormack Park just to see how it went and it went brilliantly. I slowly expanded it every year and next year in Falkirk we have 20 teams coming in from all over the world.

"I run the tournament on behalf of a team from Iceland who come over every year and have a great affiliation with Scotland.

"It’s an invitational tournament and we’re always going to keep it that way because I’ve seen some tournaments that happen abroad and it turns into chaos as it becomes too frantic because everybody wants to win the cup.”

Next year’s Lava Cup will see the 20 teams split into four sections of five, with the top two in each group qualifying for the knockout quarter-finals.

The third and fourth placed teams in each section will play for the Ice Plate, or secondary cup, with the four squads finishing bottom of their group also playing off for a trophy.

The Falkirk Stadium playing surface will be divided into quarters, so four matches can be played simultaneously.

See the link https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092563221652 for further information on the 2025 Lava Cup.

Boal will visit the Falkirk Stadium in November to speak to Dougie McCallum and Ian Mitchell from Falkirk Foundation T8s, who help host the tournament and organise it with him, to continue the preparation process for next May.

Their discussions will include picking which charity will benefit from the 2025 Lava Cup’s staging.

This year’s competition saw over £3000 split between Strathcarron Hospice and Falkirk's Mental Health Association.