Bubble soccer arrives to town, mixing sports and laughs

It is hard enough for some people to play soccer normally, let alone play with the ball while inside another ball. The Sun Soccer Sports Stadium, an indoor futsal (a version of five-a-side indoor football) space has opened in a factory building in the Areia Preta neighborhood, bringing bubble soccer to Macau.
In a game, the players have to wear a giant inflated bubble that envelopes more than half of their bodies. The only exposed body parts are the players’ legs, allowing them to move around the field. Sun Soccer charges MOP280 per hour for six players and MOP350 per hour for eight.
In an interview on Saturday, Miguel Sou Chan U, one of the founders of the stadium, told the Times that they purchased two bubbles around three to four months ago and launched a trial before ordering more. He said that while they anticipated a positive response from the public, the results surpassed their expectations. “We posted a video clip onto Facebook, showing people trial-playing the bubbles. It reached thousands of views in a very short period of time. This is what we did not anticipate,” he said.
Sou said that he first heard about bubble soccer around two years ago. However, he did not expect that the activity could be found in Macau. After the stadium opened in May, the management, including Sou, has been trying to attract more customers with new elements, which led them to bubble soccer.
As a soccer player, Sou reckoned that playing the bubble version has nothing to do with conventional soccer skills because of the restrictions the bubble places on the player. “Since the bubble has its own weight and it affects your vision, [and] you are knocked down by others, [playing this game] has very little to do with playing soccer. Instead, it is more important that you know how to knock others down,” he said.
Sou said that since the game is fun and the bubble protects the players, he believes that it is suitable for both men and women. “There are many girls who came here and tried it,” he said.
While he suggested that a game would be more entertaining with more participants, the stadium allows a maximum of eight players in the same game. Sou claimed that they receive reservations for bubble soccer almost every day of the week. He also revealed that the stadium is investigating the feasibility of organizing other related events outside the venue, or even a bubble soccer match.
Rita Cheang, the vice-president of Sacred Heart Canossian College sports club, tried bubble soccer for the first time on Saturday with her colleagues. “I think it is very interesting because [you are putting a bubble on] and can bump each other and then you need your teammates to help you when you roll down. So, it is kind of fun and interesting,” she told the Times.
Cheang added that she is planning another bubble soccer gathering for her club members in the future.

Another venue to play bubble soccer

Another indoor sports venue that provides bubble soccer in Macau is Vita Space. Like Sun Soccer Sports Stadium, Vita Space is located in an industrial building on Avenida do Almirante Lacerda. It charges MOP240 per hour for six bubbles, and an extra MOP60 for each additional bubble. The company also allows customers to rent bubbles and take them away from the venue, at a cost of MOP120 per bubble.