The 2014 CBC Charity Cup will see fierce but friendly futsal battles at Beeline Arena this Sunday, with eight teams signed up to vie for the trophy and in doing so raising money to enter a Cambodian squad at this year’s Homeless World Cup in Santiago, Chile.

The daylong tournament, title-sponsored for the second year running by local financial reporting service Credit Bureau Cambodia, features a round-robin group stage before the top two sides of each of the two groups progress to criss-cross semifinals and then the grand final. The bottom two sides, meanwhile, will contest the Community Trophy in the same format.

Reigning champions Mad Monkey have been bracketed in Group 1 alongside Paddy Rice, Metro RAHU and Dan Meats, while Group 2 includes Latin Quarter, KPMG, Indodrill and a team made up of players from Happy Football Cambodia Australia, the charity organisation that trains and sends local homeless youngsters to the Homeless World Cup.

Previous Cambodian sides have played in destinations such as Melbourne, Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Mexico City and Poznan, Poland.

The 12th edition of the annual tournament will be held at the Plaza de Armas in central Santiago from October 19-26, and will feature more than 500 male and female competitors from 64 nations.

Matches of seven minutes each way at Beeline Arena kick off from 9am on Sunday. Teams are permitted five players on the field at any one time including goalkeepers, who are allowed out of the penalty area but can only handle the ball inside.

A win is worth three points in the group stage, a draw one point and nothing for a loss.

Event organiser Jimmy Campbell said: “We are grateful to all the sponsors [CBC, Dan Meats, Angkor Beer, Angkor Puro, Beeline Arena and The Lost Room] and teams who have supported the event again this year.

“It promises to be a highly competitive contest again this year. All proceeds will go to HFCA to help get the Cambodian team to the Homeless World Cup.

“We hope to raise around $4,000 which will assist in getting the team to Chile.”