The 2025 “Sui’an Street Super” Five-a-side Tournament kicks off, igniting the football dreams of Bay Area youth.

On October 3rd, the Jin Yu Football Field at Sui’an Sports Camp in Liwan District, Guangzhou, echoed with loud cheers as the 2025 “I Love Football” City League and “Sui’an Street Super” Five-a-side Football Championship officially commenced. Leaders from the Guangdong Football Association, football legends, international referees, sponsor representatives, and players from 16 teams, totaling nearly 200 participants, came together to mark the beginning of this significant youth football event in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Guided by the General Administration of Sport’s Mass Sports Department and the Chinese Football Association, and hosted by the Guangdong Football Association, the high-quality “Sui’an Street Super” event centers on building a multi-tiered social football competition system, focusing on youth development and football talent scouting.

The tournament continues to leverage the advantages of the five-a-side format reform, dividing participants into U12 and U10 age groups, attracting 16 elite teams from across the province to compete on the same stage, thereby providing a professional platform for young footballers of different ages to showcase their skills.

In terms of format, the competition innovatively blends competitiveness with fun: adopting a “group round-robin + ranking matches” system, where three rounds of intense group matches determine qualifiers, followed by two rounds of ranking matches to finalize standings, ensuring every game is suspenseful; special honors such as “Fair Play Award” and “Top Scorer” promote players’ awareness of rules and fighting spirit. Notably, new features like “one-on-one penalty kicks” and “last-minute goals counting double” encourage players to uphold the sportsmanship of “never giving up” in tough moments, while making the matches more thrilling and immersing spectators in the unique charm of football.

“Integration of sports and education” and “grassroots linkage” are highlights of this edition. Leveraging the high-quality resources of Liwan District’s Sui’an Sports Camp, the event deeply connects schools and communities in the Greater Bay Area through activities like “young players entering campuses” and “youth football training camps,” bringing football culture into classrooms and community life, offering youth close access to professional football.

Meanwhile, the tournament actively explores the “Football+” integrated development model, combining football activities with commercial district consumption and cultural tourism in scenic areas, which not only stimulates sports consumption potential but also makes football a link connecting urban life scenes, injecting new vitality into the integration of sports and cultural tourism industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This initiative vividly responds to the national call for “sports events entering scenic spots, neighborhoods, and commercial districts.”

“Last year, we held a three-a-side football tournament at Nanhai Shopping Plaza in Foshan; this year, moving the five-a-side competition into community courts aims to truly bring football back to the public and energize city life,” said Zhou Sui’an, Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Football Association and head of Guangzhou Sui’an Football Development Co., Ltd. Future plans include installing mini cage football fields in multiple communities citywide, building cage football camps, and deepening cooperation with local sports companies like Qiahaoshi, Aoshen, and Ruike Sports, making football a new lifestyle trend within urban communities.

To ensure the quality of the event, the organizing committee has established a comprehensive support system: each match is equipped with professional medical teams and AED emergency devices, with a green channel to top-tier hospitals to guarantee safety; strict identity verification is enforced to prevent impersonation; a Fair Play Supervision Committee is set up to rigorously investigate forfeits and withdrawals, safeguarding every player’s dream on the field with professional and standardized services.

A Guangdong Football Association official expressed hope that starting from “Sui’an Street Super,” the community football competition model will be further developed, using a professional competition platform to deeply integrate grassroots football promotion with elite talent development, preparing reserves for the Greater Bay Area Games and laying a solid foundation for the future of Chinese football.

Over the coming month, 16 teams will continue to sweat and chase their dreams on the green pitch, while “Sui’an Street Super” will become the most passionate sports symbol of this autumn in Guangzhou, writing a new chapter for youth football in the Bay Area.