Courtesy: Kick Off


Futsal League opens in Soweto

30/4/2009

The five-a-side indoor football discipline continues to gain popularity with South Africa’s biggest township Soweto giving birth to the first Futsal League in the country –the Soweto Indoor Futsal League.

According to the founding director of the League, Lucas Mhoni, 18 teams have already registered and playing regularly in the league which has it base at the Orlando Communal Hall.

The Futsal League is affiliated to Safa Soweto.

“Though we have been playing Futsal for a while now in the township, it only now that we have established a formal structure to govern the League,” says Mhoni.

“We have amateurs and professionals and former PSL players all featuring in the League. We play our games on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from18h30 to 21h30.

“Though we have no sponsor at the moment, this is a highly competitive League and Safa has already appointed some people to look into the League. We are hoping that when the national team is selected we will have representation.

“We are also grateful that the City of Johannesburg has been supportive by offering us all the halls in Soweto. Though there is famous names playing in the league, we have undertaken to prioritise this League as being a development stage where mostly younger players from the lower divisions play,” says Mhoni.

Former Moroka Swallows midfielder Peter ‘Big Six’ Rabolele is a co-ordinator of the League and also regularly plays for his team.

“Guys like Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Thuso Phala and David Mathebula are owners of teams in this League, while the likes of Mxolisi Mchunu and Sipho Sephadi also get to play here. Last year players like Siphiwe Mkhonza and Jabulani Mendu also came in to play,” says Mhoni.

Soweto will host a Champions of Champions tournament on June 16 that will feature two teams each from Carletonville, Orange Farm and Ekurhuleni.

“Two teams from each of the Leagues in these areas will come and battle it out with the winners walking away with R10 000. We are hoping that this league will grow further,” says Mhoni.

Futsal is played on a hard rubber court surface delimited by lines with a smaller ball used which suits the skilled players.

Fifa and AMF are responsible for maintaining and promulgating the official rules of the game, but South Africa is not yet ranked on the official world rankings which feature just 25 countries with Brazil, Italy and Spain in the top three.








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