"We're celebrating 20 years of the CBC Futsal, and our goal is to work towards becoming the best international youth futsal tournament"
The directors of the Costa Blanca Cup, an international youth tournament, take stock of the futsal competition's 20th anniversary
The Costa Blanca Cup futsal tournament celebrates its 20th anniversary this summer of 2025. Fernando Brotons and Daniel Artíguez, directors of this sporting and tourism event and CEOs of Tour-Sport Promociones Deportivas, which takes place in the Marina Alta and Marina Baja regions, with Benidorm as its hub, reflect on these twenty years of promoting futsal in youth categories.
Based on the football tournament's foundation, what is your assessment of these 20 years of the CBC Futsal in terms of experiences?
In 2005, with the CBC Futsal already established, we wanted to introduce futsal into the tournament. However, although we decided to hold them together, we gave futsal the importance it deserved. A website separate from the football website, the same with the catalogue, and providing it with the same quality as football, in terms of facilities, participation of foreign teams, etc. It was difficult to get started, because we were the first futsal tournament with this format. And we focused, as always, on foreign participation, which gives the tournament prestige and quality. We went without this participation for the first two years, but since the third edition, 25 countries have participated in the CBC futsal. These include countries as traditional futsal players as Brazil, Russia, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, etc. Futsal teams have even come from Australia, thus completing the participation of teams from all five continents.
And in terms of numbers, what has this futsal tournament achieved up to its 20th anniversary?
Well, no less than the participation of 1,050 teams, men's and women's, from 25 countries on all five continents, which means more than 10,000 players.
What do you consider to be the turning points in the tournament's history to date?
As I mentioned, it was difficult to get started and to have a foreign presence. But in the third edition, we achieved it, and we achieved it with the participation of teams from Australia, Brazil, France, and Spain. The presence of teams from these countries was a boost for future editions. It's worth noting that of the 20 editions, 14 have had Brazilian teams participating, which makes the tournament attractive and prominent. They also contribute a lot of sporting quality. Two editions ago, the strategic decision was made to separate it from the soccer tournament. We needed to grow and lacked the number of beds to do so. By separating them, we had the opportunity to obtain more beds and thus be able to attract more teams. And the decision was correct, as this last edition we grew 60% compared to the previous one, and the majority of the teams were foreign teams.
And what can be highlighted about this specific 2025 edition, the 20th anniversary edition?
Well, it's a record-breaking edition. It's the edition with the highest participation of CBC futsal, 97 teams. This is the edition with the largest participation of foreign teams: 38 teams. And it's the first time that foreign teams outnumber Spanish teams. So much so that in every age group of the tournament, there is at least one foreign team.
What are your goals going forward?
The objectives are to continue growing the CBC futsal in terms of the number of participating teams and to ensure that the foreign presence continues to increase. To make the CBC the biggest and best international youth futsal tournament.
What players, teams, milestones, or anecdotes would you highlight from these 20 years?
More than a specific event, I would highlight having given thousands of boys and girls who play futsal the opportunity to live a sporting and personal experience they will remember for a lifetime. Competing, living together, and meeting other young people from all over the world, with those who share the same passion, is something you will never forget.