Our Founder

"Soccer should be a judgement-free place, everyone is here to play the beautiful game"

Born on a small island called Jersey just off the coast of France. Johnathon (or JJ as he is known in the soccer world) has been around the world and played soccer in some spectacular locations. One thing that always went with him though was his ability to organize a group of people into a soccer game, whether it was friends, or random people he found in a hostel on his travels.

 This all started from a very young age, it was something he loved doing very the get go, as a 12-year-old lad in England. He'd be the one arranging the times for his friends to meet on the fields during the weekend.

As he grew older, this became more involved, with organizing and captaining teams in Southern England, taking them to regional and national competitions all over the country. Eventually, this led to the idea of building a tournament for his friends which would stop all the top players going on the same team.

What started out as a simple idea for just friends has grown into what we know the Indoor Invitational as today.

Our Story

The Indoor Invitational is truly an idea that has been floating around since JJ was a young lad though. Even at the age of 12, he was splitting his friends into even duos to play a game of "heads and volleys" down the park. 

Always fascinated by keeping things fair and even for all, the very first indoor invitational (pictured to the right) was created. A bunch of friends, and friends of friends all in one tournament together, split by a ranking system designed to keep things fair.

The tournament was a massive success, leading to another two tournaments in England, with more people finding the Indoor Invitational via word of mouth. 

As our team started to travel, we took our tournament idea to New Zealand, where we needed to see if it would really work without any prior knowledge of the players playing. Many successfull tournaments later and we knew we were onto something great.

Our Story Continued

Over the next couple of years we developed partnerships with local teams and the WaiBOP football association as the premier sporting event during the national leagues off-season. 

Teams would send their players to us to keep fit during the summer while creating a safe place to play for all levels of ability, from the beginner teams all the way up to the premier division sides. 

Eventually, JJ left the country and while it did continue for a short-period, it became a bit too difficult with the tax implications at that time. Upon moving to Canada in 2016, JJ looked into starting the tournaments but found the East Coast prices did not make sense, this led to a 5-year hiatus of the Indoor Invitational.

Thus, leading us to 2021 when he had created a name for himself in the Vancouver Soccer community, he decided to bring it back in October 2021. From here, it's gone leaps and bounds, with players from all of Canada and even the US taking part in the tournaments, the major highlight was seeing the Invitational go Outdoors and run over two-days for the first time in it's 11-year history.

Our Players

All we want to do is create a tournament which everyone can play in. Whether you're a former product of the Southampton youth academy (Looking at you, George) or a brand new to soccer player who just wants to try it out in a judgement-free zone.

We're truly an all-inclusive area and safe space for anyone who wants to play soccer. As you'll see above, one of our mottos is "No Bull**** Tolerance" and we truly live by that. If someone is not living by our values, they will be kicked out of the tournament, no questions asked.

Our hope is the more new players we get playing, the more they will learn from the experienced players which gets more people involved in the beautiful game.

A beautiful part of our tournaments is the individual entry aspect, meaning all the players are in the same boat - no brand new player who is joining a team of regulars for 10 years. It's a great way to make lifelong friendships and meet like-minded soccer folk in your area.

If you're nervous about anything, please give us a message and we would be happy to put you in touch with someone who was previously in a similar position as you, whether a new player, or just new to the city. 

Better yet, check us out on Instagram and see our wonderful reviews!