A group of Korean students has expanded the second Globald Cup futsal tournament for foreign students after a surprise surge of interest.

The six-a-side soccer competition has been increased to include 20 teams from the original 16 planned, but had to stop there due to funding.

“We wanted to make it bigger, but we couldn’t manage the funding in such a short time,” said Kyung-ryul Kim, who is part of event organizer Maniac University Sports Town.



MUST, a nonprofit group of students who hope to work in the sports industry, which also puts on sports events for Korean students, said that they got the idea for the project from their own experiences of studying abroad.

“We enjoyed our lives there, but we could also feel lonely not being surrounded by people, and we always wanted to play football. So we thought there would be foreigners here with a similar feeling and wanted to help them share their football skills with other friends,” he said.

Kim said the response from local exchange students was strong, with more than 20 countries represented.

“They are really passionate,” he said. “What’s really great is that they are not concentrating only on making teams for this event, they are making groups so that they can play regularly.”

Teams will play each other in groups of four, with the winners of each group, plus three total runners-up, going through to the knockout stages.

The overall winner will get 500,000 won ($420), with smaller cash prizes for the second and third place teams.

The event will be held on Oct. 3 at the Kyung Hee University global campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

Visit globald2015.cafe24.com for more details.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)