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Inside the Futsal Challenge Tour: NB Soccer’s Most Active Winter Competition

The NB Pitch · April 4, 2026 · 3 min read

If you want to understand where NB soccer’s energy is in the winter and early spring, look at the Futsal Challenge Tour. Soccer NB’s FCT is a travelling tournament circuit that stops in multiple cities, draws clubs from across the province, and has been expanding its reach in recent seasons.

Here’s everything you need to know about what the FCT is, what happened in the 2025-26 season, and why it matters for player development in New Brunswick.

What Is the Futsal Challenge Tour?

The Futsal Challenge Tour is Soccer NB’s provincial futsal tournament circuit. It runs across multiple weekends through the winter and early spring, with each stop hosted in a different city — rotating across the province to give clubs from different regions access to competition without always having to travel to Moncton or Fredericton.

The FCT is open from U11 through to Senior, covering both boys/men and girls/women. Each weekend typically runs Boys/Men on Saturday and Girls/Women on Sunday, with registration through Soccer NB’s PowerUp Sports platform (soccernb.powerupsports.com).

The 2025-26 Season in Numbers

The scale of the FCT in 2025-26 is genuinely impressive. The January 2026 stop alone — held in Charlottetown, PEI — featured 39 teams and 73 games across a single weekend. Soccer NB’s January 2026 newsletter described it as “a huge success” and highlighted “an incredible display of talent and sportsmanship.”

Confirmed FCT stops in the 2025-26 season include:

  • January 24-25, 2026 — Charlottetown, PEI (39 teams, 73 games)
  • February 22, 2026 — Miramichi, NB (venues: L’École Carrefour Beausoleil and James M. Hill High School)
  • March 21-22, 2026 — Moncton, NB (final stop of the season)

The February Miramichi stop saw clubs including Miramichi, Dieppe, Codiac, Tracadie, and Peninsule competing — a provincial spread that shows the FCT’s reach well beyond the main urban centres. A parent in attendance commented on Facebook: “Thank you for a great tournament and a big thank you to Toussaint for all the hard work he put in to make this day a success for the U13.”

Why Futsal Matters for Player Development

Futsal is not just indoor soccer with smaller goals. It is a distinct discipline that emphasizes quick decision-making, first-touch quality, close control in tight spaces, and rapid transitions. Soccer NB and Canada Soccer both actively promote futsal as a year-round complement to the outdoor game. [Source: Soccer NB January 2026 Newsletter]

The FCT gives NB players competitive futsal experience through the winter months — a format that many provinces also use as part of their year-round player development calendar.

The FCT: NB Soccer’s Winter Circuit

While many NB soccer fans are waiting for the outdoor season to start, hundreds of players are competing in gyms across the province every winter weekend through the FCT. It’s one of the least-covered aspects of NB soccer and one of the most active.