The sport that unites people the world over, football is coming to Inverell again in a big way when the 2024 The Rale Rasic Joeys Mini World Cup kicks off over 27-30 September.
A bumper number of teams with players from the NSW north coast, across the New England North West, Newcastle, Toowoomba, and Adelaide will descend on the community with families, coaches, referees and lines people. This year’s event as been foreshortened to allow Queensland and NSW players to gather with their overlapping school holidays.
Known for years as the Joeys Mini World Cup, the event was renamed in 2023 to commemorate the great Rale Rasic, the beloved Serbian-Australian football legend, who took the first Australian Socceroos team to the World Cup in 1974.
A mentor and patron of the Joeys Mini World Cup and close friend of Mini World Cup founder Heinrich Haussler, Rale died in June 2023, after he was able to attend the 2023 event launch when it returned home to Inverell.
German-born Heinrich has moved mountains to sustain and grow the Cup since he conceived and launched the event in Inverell in 2010. He continues to shoulder the bulk of the tournament’s organisation, and his passion for providing access to quality competition is relentless.
“I do it for the kids. Because if I don’t do it, if this is gone, there’s nothing. Especially for the regional kids, There is nothing,” Heinrich said.
“It was something I created, then Rale came in, and I think now, it’s to keep Rale’s legacy going, because he absolutely loved it, and he always did a hell of a lot for young kids.”
The 2010 inaugural Cup started with a modest 16 teams participating. It billowed to 48 teams before Heinrich relocated the popular competition to Hervey Bay when the registration numbers spilled over the 100-team mark.
This year’s playing fields will have over 65 teams participating, with 52 youth teams and women’s open teams, 16-18 business fun teams to raise funds for a local charity, and an inclusive tournament for players with disability.
The carnival will dominate the Inverell Sporting Complex over four days, starting with an opening ceremony and long days of excitement on the pitches. Players each receive a strip representing their country drawn on 8 September, and all teams are guaranteed seven to eight games.
Winning teams and players will receive trophies at the Presentation Night. But as always, the competition offers something even more exciting for selected players who shine on the fields.
Four top players from the Mini World Cup will receive an all-expenses paid month-long trip (airfare not included ) to Germany in 2025 to train with professional Bundesliga coaches, and play German youth teams over the 26-day tour.
The intent is to provide experience, new friendships, and skill-development. Subsidies will also be extended to 44 players and four coaches for the trip, which is also open to registrations to all Cup players aged 14 and up, and offers a stepping stone toward professional opportunity.
Historically, the German tour has opened doors to tour members. Former player Lauren Rause-Jackson will be bringing a team all the way from Adelaide this year. Lauren was selected for a fully-paid tour in a former Mini World Cup in 2011, and subsequently played for Bardenbach, Germany in the 2nd Women’s Bundesliga.
This year, two Joeys, Riley Schutz and Jonas Frost, were identified by their talent playing on the 2024 tour, and selected to play for four weeks with a German football club in June.
When the players head home this year, there is another opportunity for even more soccer.
Players have already filled a free training workshop the week after the competition with visiting German Bundesliga coach Jens Kiefer, who will provide training sessions over two days, followed by a day of kayaking.
Haussler remains steadfast in his commitment to making the event memorable and an example of what is known worldwide as ‘the beautiful game’.
“What I’m hoping for this year is a good, well-run carnival, that parents and players play and behave in the spirit of the game, that referee decisions are final, that we must accept that referees can also make mistakes, as players can, that it is the friendly games,” he said.
“That is something that they should all remember as a wonderful time.”
Toowoomba Grammar has been a dedicated supporter of the Cup for years, sending multiple teams to play annually. Heinrich said Toowoomba coach Chris McLeod recently shared with him the indelible impression the event has made on former players.
“They have these get-togethers every five years or so with the kids that have left Toowoomba Grammar School,” Heinrich said.
“And when he said, ‘What is your most memorable thing of all the sporting things we did?’ they all said, ‘The Mini World Cup.’”
The Rale Rasic Mini World Cup will be shortly closing team registrations. Some team registrations are still open for U8s, U10s, and U12s (combined boys and girls), U14s, and U13/14s for girls, and a special invitation for more teams for players with disability.
Heinrich said they are specifically looking for five or six girls local to Inverell to play in the 13-14 age group.
“Because that’s something we really want to push, and that is something for the girls, so they don’t have to play in boys’ teams; they have their own competition. And they also have the possibility to be selected, to be seen, and get a subsidy or a paid trip to Germany next year,” Heinrich said.
Learn more about the history, the opportunities, all contact information, and registration details for the Rale Rasic Joeys Mini World Cup at joeysminiworldcupinverell.com.