Courtesy: Boro Futsal


The FA Futsal Cup

by Damon Shaw

Saturday, 13 June 2009

The FA run the most prestigious club knockout competition in the World – The FA Cup, and for those involved in futsal in England, the FA Futsal Cup is the equivalent of the world famous competition. The likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal don’t feature in the small sided game, however but household names for futsal fans such as Ipswich Wolves, Helvecia and Tranmere could be likened to the aforementioned teams.

While England can claim to have taken the eleven a side game to the shores of South America, it is the other way round when it comes to the five a side version of football, called futebol de salao by the Brazilians – literally, indoor football. The FA Futsal Cup was England’s first attempt at a national championship in futsal, held in 2003, when Sheffield Hallam won the first ever FA Futsal Cup, joining Wanderers (first ever FA Cup winners…) in a statistic that will never be forgotten. Back then it was a low-key, invitational tournament and now, with a full national league also in operation, The FA Futsal Cup is something of a major event, and a showcase one at that. With a specialist events company commissioned to run the event to the high standards The FA expect, and with over sixty different qualifying competitions it has evolved significantly from its lowly beginnings six years ago.

Despite becoming bigger and better, the FA Futsal Cup has lost the one thing that made it what it was: a place in the UEFA Futsal Cup for the winners. That now goes, and rightly so, to the winners of The FA Futsal League. The buzz around The FA Futsal Cup, however, and the desire to win it among the teams is far from down on previous years, in fact, with less at stake, it may even make for an improved atmosphere and better spectacle.

The tournament takes over the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield for three whole days, with four pitches set up in the international venue. Sixteen women’s teams join the men’s competition and on 3rd July it will be all go for the clubs, organisers and spectators for three days of futsal drama.

Winning teams have, with the exception of the inaugural champions, and the remarkable Doncaster College for the deaf, been generally made up of foreign players. FC White Bear, who have won it twice, albeit once as Team USSR, are, as their former moniker suggests, made up of players of soviet origin. Ipswich Wolves, an exciting new team to burst onto the futsal scene hail from Portuguese communities in the Suffolk town and Helvecia, the current holders take their players, as well as their name from a Brazilian city. Doncaster College’s achievement, therefore, being an English based team, as well as a disability side in a mainstream competition is all the more amazing.

Sadly, Doncaster’s adventure ended shortly after their UEFA Futsal Cup campaign (for reasons of players leaving the college), but the other names live on and will once again be battling it out for the futsal version of the most famous cup in the world this July.

Eight teams qualify directly for the finals, with two from BUCS (British University Championships) and the top two from each of the national futsal leagues, and this year’s first names in the hat were BUCS Championship fourth and fifth placed teams Worcester University and Leeds Met University. With the top three universities competing in the national league, they weren’t afforded a double shot at direct qualification, so Worcestor and Leeds, the highest placed teams behind Team Bath, Hartpury and Loughborough University were awarded a place in The FA Futsal Cup finals. All three went on to qualify anyway, either directly or through the playoffs, showing the strength of University futsal.

Next up, Middlesbrough (also intrinsically linked to Teesside University) secured qualification in April after opening up a lead at the top of the FA Futsal League North, and Sheffield and Hallamshire secured the second spot a few weeks later. Tranmere Victoria, one of the most famous names in English futsal and regular feature in the latter stages of the FA Futsal Cup, just made it through directly along with Hartpury College from the midlands league. Reigning champions Helvecia will be back to defend the cup, with Kickers joining them from the south.

The remaining eight places are given to the winners of eight regional qualifying rounds taking place over two weekends in June. All the national league teams who missed out on direct qualification enter this round, and are joined by winners of local futsal leagues, which are usually organised by county FAs, councils or individual organisers. This is the round that can, and inevitably will, cause some upsets among the bigger teams. With up to three national league teams in each one, some will miss out, which only goes to emphasise the strength that the final tournament will possess.

No upsets occurred in the first four of the qualifiers, which took place on Saturday 6th June. Loughborough University won the North A group, knocking out FC Barsa on the way. Team Bath completed a five strong University line-up in the finals. Bath, runners-up in the BUCS Futsal Championship, knocked out Birmingham Tigers. White Bear, who missed out on direct qualification are back to aim to become the first team to win three FA Futsal Cups and Newham Genesis from the South West A group return to The FA Futsal Cup for the second year in succession.

Four places remain to be decided, and it’s already shaping up to be the strongest competition to date. With former champions Ipswich Wolves, Vaughan’s, runners-up to Wolves in 2007, FC Baltic and Manchester all still in the hunt, there will be no weak teams in this season’s finals.

The draw, just like The FA Cup, will take place at Soho Square, the headquarters of the Football Association, on 15th June and while it won’t attract much public attention, there will be sixteen clubs all waiting with anticipation to see who they will face in the group stage.

There will be four groups of four, with two from each progressing to the quarter finals. A consolation for the teams in third and fourth is the Plate competition, a welcome distraction for those teams who will fail to make it beyond the tough group stage.

The eight direct qualifiers will be seeded, meaning each group will have two teams who qualified directly, and will be joined by two teams from the regional rounds. It doesn’t offer much protection though, as two former champions, Ipswich Wolves and FC White Bear could be in a group with two seeded teams. No group would be easy, but there will certainly be a ‘group of death’ or two! Imagine Helvecia, Tranmere, Ipswich Wolves and White Bear battling it out for two places in the quarter finals.

Helvecia will certainly be favourites to defend The FA Futsal Cup, an unprecedented achievement in the short history of futsal in England, but there will be no shortage of teams vying to make history. Ipswich Wolves, should they successfully negotiate the qualifying round, will be after revenge on Helvecia, who beat them in both the league and cup finals last season. The Cup final was level at 0-0 until the last seconds of the game when Thiago Roberto Diorio turned the ball into the net to the jubilation of the Brazilians.

FC White Bear will be a team to look out for, despite having an indifferent season in the South so far, their experience will come to the fore once again in Sheffield and with Oleksandr Saliy leading them, they are sure to provide some welcome entertainment off the field as well.

Tranmere Victoria, Kickers and Sheffield and Hallamshire cannot be discounted. The latter winning a tournament in the capital some weeks ago, against southern opposition, reminding them that the northern teams have something to offer.

The University sides cannot be written off, and unlike a lot of the top teams they use a majority of English born players. Middlesbrough, top of the FA Futsal League North will boast a full English squad, excepting one of their three goalkeepers. It shows that while foreign players may have the upper hand in terms of experience, English based teams are well advised to delve into local communities and educational establishments to bolster their ranks and help develop the future of the game from the grass roots.

Futsal is starting to snowball in certain areas of England and as a whole, the development of the game is taking shape. The FA Futsal Cup is just the tip of the iceberg, along with the FA Futsal League, and provides aspiring kids with a valid route to the top of the game. One day, it will attract the attention it deserves and who knows one hundred years on, The FA Futsal Cup could be the world’s most prestigious futsal club knockout competition. This year though, it is firmly in the sights of all the teams involved and come July 3rd all eyes will be on Sheffield.







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