South Tyrol's U19 team is also ready.

Regional tournament: South Tyrol's teams ready to go

The first call-ups at the end of October, training sessions and friendly matches – it was months of intensive work to be ready for the big event, the 2026 regional tournament. And now the selection teams have been finalized.

March 25, 2026

From: pm

The U19, U17, and U15 men's national teams, as well as the U21 women's national team of the Autonomous Provincial Committee of Bolzano of the LND-FIGC, are ready. On Friday, they will travel to Apulia, the host city of the 62nd edition of the regional tournament. The first day of play for each group begins on Saturday and concludes on Monday. The quarterfinals will follow on Wednesday, the semifinals on Thursday, and the grand final on Friday. The South Tyrolean teams have been drawn into Group C and will face Lazio, Umbria, and Basilicata in succession.

The first matches of the Bolzano regional committee's select teams took place in October, according to the meticulously planned program of the committee's energetic vice president, Andreas Canal, who sadly passed away on December 27, 2025, and who always planned the select teams' activities with great competence and passion. Several test matches were subsequently played, including against the Trento regional team, the Emilia-Romagna regional team, and the youth teams of FC Südtirol.

Innovations in the coaching staff

Compared to the last edition, there are some changes in the coaching staff. The new coach of the U19 juniors is Mauro Ambrosi, assisted by Franz Profunser. Harald Crepaz, together with Fabio Pelanda, leads the U15 team, while Silvia Marcolin, together with Sara Di Filippo, manages the women's team. The U17 team, however, continues to be coached by Manuel Obrist, who will again be assisted by Markus Terzer at this tournament.

The South Tyrol delegation's headquarters are located in Torre Canne di Fasano. On the first match day, Saturday, the South Tyrolean team will face Lazio in four games, all taking place in Noci. On Sunday, they will play against Umbria in Alberobello, where they will also compete against Basilicata on Monday.

The women's U23 team.

In the men's competition, the top finishers in each group and the three best runners-up from the entire preliminary round qualify for the quarter-finals, while in the women's competition, the top finishers in the four groups and the three-player round-robin, as well as the three best runners-up from the four-player groups, advance to the knockout round.

“We certainly aren’t going into the competition as favorites, but our past experience shows that we can definitely compete with anyone,” says Günther Pföstl, Vice President of the Committee and Head of Delegation. “Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to clear the qualification hurdle in the last two editions, whereas in 2023 we reached the semifinals with the U19 team and the quarterfinals with the U17 team. If we could at least get one team into the knockout round, that would already be a great success for us.”