The Castlemaine Masters Football Club came up with the idea of organising a modified rules football tournament after playing a similar event in Bali for the past four years.

Mostly ex-pat Australians play for teams including Borneo, Indonesia, Timor and Dubai at the Bali competition.

Castlemaine Masters won its division in Bali last year and has since decided to host its own matches of nine-a-side football – played on soccer pitches – at Chewton Football Ground on Saturday, February 19.

Teams from Gippsland, Brunswick, Geelong, Dubai and Melbourne are confirmed for the over-35s matches.

Castlemaine Masters president Jim Moran said Masters 9s was rapidly increasing in popularity across Australia and Asia.

“Asian football is just massive in terms of ex-pats playing for other countries,” Moran said.

“It’s sort of taking off a lot around Australia, too.”

The Castlemaine Masters will use the competition as a warm-up for the Victorian Country Masters football competition which begins April 1 – and for the defence of their Bali title.

The match format is two 12-minute halves with a five minute half-time break. Players can only kick a goal from inside a 35m arc, and 15m penalties – rather than 50m – can be awarded by the umpire.

The matches are full-contact with tackling and bumps allowed, but Moran said it was much less physical than “when you were 18”.

The first bounce for the round-robin matches at Chewton is at 8.30am, with the grand final beginning at 6pm.

Entry is free for spectators. New teams and players are welcome to join the competition and can contact Stuart Dunn on 0439 391 014.