The Soccer Six was an annual indoor football tournament organized the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The first year of the competition was for the Midlands clubs only, but expanded for clubs nationwide every year after.

History

The competition was inspired by the success of Major Indoor Soccer League that ran between 1978 and 1992 in the

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. The popularity of the Soccer Six coincided with the six-year ban English clubs faced from

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...

in 1985. A pilot tournament sponsored by

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was run for football clubs in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

at the

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in Birmingham in 1982. The

opened the competition to all First Division clubs in 1982. All 21 top flight teams entered the competition in 1988 plus

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of the

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. The tournament took place in December of each year until it was cancelled in 1991. Tournament highlights were covered by the

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's ''

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''. Sponsorship by

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and finally

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followed. Matches lasted a total of 15 minute split into two halves and had the rolling substitutions rule.
Other basic rules included a team must always have a player in the opposition half, a player could not shoot inside the marked yellow box and if the goalkeeper passed the ball to his team mate, that player could not pass back to the goalkeeper. The sin-bin was in use for the more serious offenders.

Winners

References

{{Reflist, 2 Defunct football cup competitions in England Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1990 1990 disestablishments in England Indoor soccer competitions Recurring sporting events established in 1982 1982 establishments in England Atari

History

Winners

See also

References