STANKOVIC WILL FACE FORMER EMPLOYERS LIBYA IN THE FINAL

by Damon Shaw from Tripoli

Croatia and Libya will contest the first final of the Mediterranean Futsal Cup today

Mato Stankovic can be credited for turning Libya from futsal novices into a well respected team in the world and the leading light in African futsal. When he took over in 2006, Libya only had players from Tripoli and the surrounding area, and part of Stankovic’s job was to scour Libya for new talent.

“We travelled all over Libya looking for players, 2,500km and when we took players in, they knew nothing about futsal, nothing about tactics, technique, anything. We ended up with about 20 players and we never stopped looking. It was difficult though if we took one or two new players, we had to start from the beginning.”

Much of today’s team was brought in by Stankovic and they continue their development under Spanish coach, Pablo Prieto.

When asked what the ambitions were of Libyan Futsal he simply answered with, “to be the best”!

He also said that for Libya to reach their goal would be “very difficult” without a league structure and development of the game at club level. Currently there is not professional futsal league in Libya. There is a league that is ran by the football federation, where the football clubs must enter teams, but it hardly takes priority and the clubs find players who already play, give them a kit and say “this is our team”.

The Libyan Futsal Team Department, responsible for all national team activities don’t currently run a futsal league but no doubt in the future they will. The national team is ran like a club team. They train every day two or three times, play matches as often, if not more often than English national league clubs and are more like a family, than a national team.

For this reason Stankovic couldn’t compare coaching Croatia to coaching Libya, “it’s incomparable!”

The Libyan futsal players are professional and are paid by the Libyan Futsal Teams Department, thus requiring a coach with experience of coaching in a club environment. Mato Stankovic fitted that bill having being national champion in Croatia for five years in a row with Split Gasperov and Brodosplit Inzenjering. He explained how he became national coach of Libya.

“Libya football team had a Croatian coach so when they wanted a coach for the futsal team they used their contacts in Croatia and that’s how I got approached. At first I was scared (about moving to a new culture) but friends who had been there told me not to worry. Libya is full of nice people, everything you need is here and it was a good experience.”

Stankovic took over the role of Croatia coach in the summer of 2010, succeeding Mico Martic who left in 2009 and with EURO 2012 around the corner, it’s an important time for futsal in Croatia. Mato Stankovic is coy about his chances of winning the first Mediterranean Futsal Cup and says they didn’t come here to win.

“Now is a starting point for this Croatian team,” he said, “we are still selecting players and we will soon have the team ready to prepare for 2012. I will be happy to win tomorrow (Wednesday) of course, but we only came here to learn and grow.”

Croatia could take the title of Mediterranean Futsal Champions if they beat Libya on Wednesday and Mato thinks the tournament has been a great success, but needs teams like Italy and Spain to make it a true Mediterranean Championship.

“It’s a good starting point for the competition, but we need all teams from the Mediterranean such as Italy and Spain and then it will become a very good championship in the future, whether in Libya again or other Mediterranean cities.”

Italy and Spain have both said they’d like to play in the competition in the future so it bodes well for the Mediterranean Futsal Cup. But for now, Croatia have the opportunity to go down in history as the first winners of the Mediterranean Futsal Cup and maybe it can change the mentality of the Croatian players, something Stankovic sees as vital in taking the next step. “We need to go into matches thinking we can win. If you start and you are scared, then you will lose.”

It’s going to be a cracking atmosphere for the final on Wednesday as Croatia and Libya lock horns for the third time in history. Both other results, in 2006 in Croatia ended in narrow wins for Croatia, can they make it three or will Libya win on home soil?


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