Footballing girls from Forres Academy, Lossie High, Banff Academy and Turriff Academy contest Spar Future Stars Football Cup at Borough Briggs and Gleaner Arena
The growing interest in women’s football is spreading across Moray and Banffshire, if a recent schools tournament is anything to go by.
The SPAR Future Stars Football Cup is a nationwide girls competition, run by the Scottish Football Association and covering all six of its regions.
The north region event was staged at Elgin City’s Borough Briggs stadium and the adjacent Gleaner Arena pitches, and drew entries from the Highlands to Aberdeen.
Lossie High and Forres Academy represented the Moray area while Banff Academy and Turriff Academy enjoyed some success in progressing to the next stages of the tourney.
“This is an opportunity for girls aged 12-16 years to participate in a competitive, fun and inclusive competition for their school,” said SFA football development officer (North) Craigh Stewart.
He said the event was split into two age groups of S1-2 and S3-4 with all schools invited to register for their local rounds with the aim of qualifying for the regional stages.
A series of closely-contested matches resulted in three schools from each age group progressing to the national finals, which are held at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld on June 3.
Lossie, Forres and Banff were joined by Kemnay, Cults, Culloden, Lochside and Inverness Royal Academy in the younger age group.
Forres and Turriff Academy were among the girls team in the S3-4 section.
Banff will take their place in the S1-2 national finals along with Kemnay and Culloden, and all of the qualifiers from the other five regions.
Turriff were one of the three schools to progress at the older age level, as well as Lochside and Cults.
Stewart added: “A huge thank you goes to to Elgin City FC and the Elgin Sports Community Trust for hosting the event, as well as to Moray and Banff Referee Association for supplying match officials for the event to make sure it ran so smoothly.”
