Marveld Tournament investigates LITE version

12 February 2021

In 2021 there will be NO REGULAR International Marveld Tournament. The tournament organization has in recent months closely followed the developments regarding Covid-19 and has concluded that a tournament with lots of public and volunteers and 12 teams from around the world is not feasible. So, this year no appearance of youth teams from Spain, Brazil, England or the United States. Also, the traditional sponsor event in collaboration with Grol, with 500 guests in the sports hall, in the first week of June has been canceled. So just like in 2020, there will be no big youth football festivities this year, as we normally are used to in Groenlo.

However, the tournament organization is investigating in the coming month the feasibility of a LITE version of the Marveld tournament. This would be a 2-day tournament in the weekend of June 5 and 6, 2021 with the participation of 8 instead of 12 teams. Of these, six are from the Netherlands, one team from Belgium and one team from Germany. The top 4 of the Netherlands, Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV and AZ, are very enthusiastic about this plan. FC Twente also supports this plan and will be represented when the LITE version of the tournament takes place. The organization assumes that no audience is allowed or a very small amount, but it would nevertheless be wonderful for the Marveld Tournament to provide a nice platform for the first top youth soccer activities in the Netherlands. Also, for the Grol-team this could be a nice ending of a so far poor soccer season. The public could follow the course of the tournament from a suitable distance via the website and social media channels. For the sponsors, an online event is being considered.

Whether this is possible, will become clear in the coming month, when the plans will be further elaborated. Among other things, we will look at how the costs can be kept as low as possible and try to get the budget right. In addition, of course, it depends on the Covid-19 measures that will apply in June, as well as what the KNVB will decide about starting a competition for teams in the A-category, which also includes the O15 teams of professional soccer clubs. We hope to give a further update about Marveld Tournament LITE in mid-March.