Report by our swiss collaborator Kaspar Burkhalter

It's Playoff time!

8 teams are only three wins away from winning this year's Swiss championship as we go to quarterfinals this weekend.

But first, let's tell you about the recent development in Swiss futsal. The german speaking countries don't have a long history in this sport. Neither Germany, Austria nor Switzerland so far had a team to pass the preliminary round in UEFA futsal cup. Futsal is still rather competing with than having it's place along football.
But there are encouraging news from Switzerland. It sure was a good year for futsal with a spectacular Brazil host win on WC and great games that had it's impact on Swiss futsal. Switzerland experienced a doubling of teams and licensed players!

And even more important, it seems to be a real movement, as many more teams are looking forward to making their debut in next year's championship. Actually, there are several requests per week to participate in the national championship next year!

Furthermore we can report the first official international participation of a U21 national team (more details here). Playing the euro08 qualification resulted in defeats but good experience. David Meyer (triple Swiss champion with Uni Bulle) will continue Andreas Hurni's work as new head coach. Also for the first time, a coaching course exclusively focusing on futsal was held by Benny Meurs for all Swiss futsal coaches (more details here).

Last year's national finalists had to wait for the last qualification round to go to the playoffs – as to see what progress most teams made you can as well have a look at the story of FC Basel. The current Swiss 11-a-side champion and Champions League participant is now involved in futsal. (more details here). One great example of football-futsal approach. Even a third sport involved as most of the team, which was promoted to premier league last year, jumps to beach soccer as soon as futsal championship is over. Although playing on world-class level on sand they missed playoffs on futsal-ground. But the future looks bright for FC Basel as this collaboration opens many possibilities.

But let's get back to this year's bests in Swiss futsal. Premier League in Switzerland is called NLA and divided in eastern and western group. Titelholder FC Seefeld Zürich had some tough games but made it last minute to the quarterfinals. But the team to beat seems to be Futsal Team Schaffhausen, scoring more than ten times per game and finishing first place. From east, they're accompanied by the “usual suspects” Union 7 Zürich and Futsal Team Dinamo (know more: click here).

Facing west you can't overlook Uni Futsal Team Bulle, triple champion and once more starting from pole position. But the one team still unbeaten in NLA is Mobulu Futsal UNI Bern, ranking second. The best defense (3.4 goals against per game) will be a tough challenge for the titelholder. Promoted from NLB, Lusitanos Futsal headed straight to playoffs. The best of the west is completed by NK Tomislavgrad Bern, last year's finalist (more details: click here).

More infos on Swiss futsal available via the official associations webpage www.football.ch, as well as on www.mobulu.com you'll find all the informations on futsal in german and links to both divisions clubs.








Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com