MICFootball’18 launches two new categories and breaks the record for participating teams

• Philippe Coutinho: “for me coming to MICFootball was a great opportunity”
• Alexia Putellas: “the new feminine football stars will come out from this tournament”

The international young football players tournament MIC – Mediterranean International Cup, which this year celebrates its 18th birthday, was presented this Monday at CaixaBank meeting room in Barcelona. The event was attended by Philippe Coutinho, player of FC Barcelona and three times winner of MICFootball, and Alexia Putellas, female FC Barcelona player.

Philippe Coutinho has recommended to boys and girls who will participate at the tournament to enjoy the games with “joy and respect” and he told them to be “happy at the fields”, and he has recognized that MICFootball was “a great opportunity to enjoy a very well organized tournament and a chance to leave Brazil for the first time”.

On the other hand, Alexia Putellas has assured that “the fact that MICFootball bets on feminine football demonstrates how our sport increases”, and she added that girls have to “get the most out of the tournament” because it’s an opportunity that “it was not always there”.

Juanjo Rovira, MICFootball director, has explained that the tournament “don’t stop growing up” and he assured that the organization of it is “a great responsibility”.

The presentation was also attended by Gerard Figueras, general secretary of Sports of the Government of Catalonia; Pere Vila, President of the provincial government of Girona (Diputació de Girona); and Maria Lluïsa Martínez Gistau, executive director of External Communication, Institutional Relations, Brand and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of CaixaBank.

Figueras claimed that “MICFootball reaches legal age fully consolidated as one of the most important football tournaments for young players worldwide”. The secretary of Sports highlighted that “because its organizational capacity, sports promotion, economic and tourism impact, and dissemination of the values of sport among the youngest, it is an exemplary event in our area, which projects our sport potential internationally and puts Catalonia on the map of major sporting events in the world.”

The president of Diputació de Girona, Pere Vila, attended the event representing the municipalities that host MICFootball. He assured that “the greatness of the tournament is that players of Catalan teams ¾no matter what category they play in¾ can compete on equal terms with the best youth football teams in the world”. Moreover, Vila admitted that “although MICFootball generates an economic impact on the territory around three and a half million euros, its media impact and the promotion of the territory is priceless”.

Maria Lluïsa Martínez Gistau, as executive director of External Comunication, Institutional Relations, Brand and CSR and representative of CaixaBank during the press conference, stated that “for CaixaBank is an honour to host the presentation of the MICFootball new edition, an international benchmark tournament of which we are the main sponsors in the world of football, basketball and integrated sports. Betting on this sports sponsorship is to bind together the entity with sports practices with which we share values such as leadership, effort, improvement and teamwork. At the same time, we believe that supporting children’s and adaptive sports reveals our commitment to diversity and a more inclusive society, reflecting the socially responsible banking model”.

Carlos Bosch, responsible of Danone Nations Cup in Spain, asserted that “football is a perfect tool to promote healthy living habits and convey such fundamental values as compassion, respect or fair play. And for the little ones, the tournaments are like a dream come true. With this goal, the Danone Nations Cup was born, considered the juveniles world cup”. Bosch added that for them “it is an honour to participate and expand a tournament for young players so important as MICFootball 2018, promoting the Football 7 game, and thanks to this joint effort to boost the female category for the first time. So, we keep doing our part to fulfil the dreams of girls and boys of all over the world”.

Coinciding with its 18th anniversary, MICFootball has launched two new categories ¾B2 (first year young players) and C2 (first year childish) ¾ and has recovered G category (young-childish female). Thus, the tournament will count on more teams than ever. This year’s edition will reach 372 teams, exceeding the 280 registered last year. This means that more than 900 matches will be played and more than 7.000 boys and girls from up to 42 countries will participate in the event.

The MIC will take place from the March 27th to April 1st and will have 46 playgrounds distributed in 37 headquarters. As a newness, this year the tournament will debut in Figueres —Vilatenim Stadium will be the scenario of the inauguration ceremony and some finals—, Sant Pere Pescador, Llançà, Bàscara, Empuriabrava, La Jonquera, Sant Gregori, Bescanó, Quart, Pals, Monells, Girona (Torres de Palau) and Vilobí d’Onyar.

MICFootball, which once again has the main sponsorship of CaixaBank, Diputació de Girona and LaLiga, reaches its 18th edition defending the same values of its beginnings: effort, certainty, respect and teamwork. The contest is a great opportunity for all participants to get to know other cultures and compete with future football and basketball stars worldwide. Large teams took part of MIC in the past editions, such as the National Team of Brazil, FC Barcelona, RCD Espanyol and Manchester United, among many others. In addition, top players such as Messi, Neymar, Coutinho, Marcelo, Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Bellerín, Bartra or Casemiro have participated in MICFootball in their training phase.

The MICBasketball, also expanded

Concurrently to MICFootball, this year the MICBasketball second edition will be played. After last year’s success, returns with the ambition of becoming the training basketball global benchmark. For this reason, the tournament turns from 60 to more than 100 registered teams, who will be divided in 10 categories. Proof of the success of this MIC field is that 50% of the participating teams in 2017 edition will repeat this year.

6th edition of MIC Integra

The MIC Integra adaptative football for people with intellectual disabilities celebrates its 6th birthday. This year several football and basketball teams from all over Catalonia will have an appointment on Friday, March 30th, in Vidreres to compete between one another. The MIC Integra counts with the support of the “la Caixa” Foundation and aims to promote the creation of a space in the sports scene to make possible that these players have their own tournament.