Sparks went flying when a second university futsal team was announced. Why the hype? Well, futsal has become widely popular over the years at university and rightly so because the UOM Knights have had exceptional seasons and made the student body beyond proud of their achievements.
Their latest achievement was the FMA Knockout Cup in which the Knights were crowned as reigning champions against the so-called ‘Goliath’ of the season, Luxol. The UoM futsal team impressively won the game against Luxol with a staggering result of 5-2.
This year, however, the Knights will not be the sole representatives of the UoM student body. A few days ago, the UM Futsal Academy has announced that it will be making its debut in this year’s league.
This is where our story gets interesting. The student body has mixed reactions to the conception of a new futsal team in university. This is due that many insist that university does not need another futsal team and that the student body should be united to support one team.
Another question that students are now faced with is who to support. Should students support who is better? Should they consider if their friends are on the team or not? Reading this, it might sound banal and just down right crazy but thinking about it a little, this is probably how organisation rivalries start out like the lawful rivalry between GħSL and ELSA, the well-nourished one between MHSA and MMSA and the blazing classic between Pulse and SDM.
As much we love the banter nestled within these rivalries, how healthy of a competition is it? This is the brighter side of the coin as competition between organisations is very much healthy to keep up standards but let’s be honest, we know many people who no longer talk to each other because of an organisation rivalry and if I have to refer to the earlier blazing classic, “many people”, is quite frankly an understatement.
All in all, the question begs to be asked, how much of a good idea is a second futsal team on campus?