Courtesy: The FA.com


The next episode

Monday, 21 March, 2011

The first England Futsal Development Squad took place on Sunday.

The FA have taken another big step in the development of English Futsal, as Sunday saw the first ever England Development Squad training session.

Around 18 players have been monitored and scouted over a long period of time to become part of the new Futsal development squad. (Similarly to an Under-21 side but without the age restrictions). They will get together a number of times a year to learn what it takes to be a full international Futsal player and with a bit of luck, flourish and compete for a place on Pete Sturgess’s national senior side.

Players have been selected from many different avenues within the Futsal world, most notably from The FA National Futsal League teams around the country and British Universities and Colleges. The squad has also been made up of some of the players who successfully represented Great British Universities at the World University championships in Serbia in August last year and are now working hard and looking to be challenged at their next step in English Futsal. The players were educated in the international style of Futsal that the England team are building to develop all the time.

This new stepping stone will hopefully be another tool in the development of English Futsal and elite Futsal player development.

The squad will be headed up by Michael Skubala, the national team's assistant coach, who will work technically and tactically with players and monitor their progress over a number of sessions which should provide a platform for players to become more accomplished Futsal players.

The first session was held at the new impressive @Futsal arena in Birmingham and the training camps consisted of a morning session, education classroom sessions and an afternoon session.

TheFA.com caught up with Michael Skubala about the day and he revealed: "I think it's a very exciting time to be involved with Futsal at the moment, with the increased awareness and rapid grassroots development of the game.

"It is great that we are putting in another platform of elite performance to strengthen the pathway from living, playing and learning in a domestic club environment to having to learn in a international team environment.

"If the foundations are right and there are strong exit routes within the game, there is no reason why the national team can’t go to that next level if the talent identification and nurturing of that talent has the opportunity to flourish."

Watch this space for the next episode of Futsal...


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