Courtesy: STV


How futsal can help save Scottish football

Andrew McDougall explains how the South American variant of the beautiful game can help produce players with better touch, passing and understanding.

30 November 2011

Whilst watching a Barcelona match last season, a friend of mine commented that goalkeeper Víctor Valdés was probably a better passer of the ball than any of the Scotland international team.

This example might be a little harsh but the general point is valid, it is often commented how Scottish players simply don't have the same level of technique as foreign players, particularly those from Latin countries.

Why this is and how can this be rectified are questions we should be looking to ask and answer. The secret may well lie in the art of futsal.

Futsal is a five a side variant of football, usually played indoors, with a heavier, size four ball which has 30% less bounce than a regular ball. It encourages short passing, creativity, intelligent movement and good technique.

Many Brazilian footballers attribute their skills to the practice of futsal, or futebol de salão as it is called in Portuguese. Witness the trickery and close skills of Ronaldinho, Robinho and Neymar, to name a few, and you are witnessing what was learned playing futsal from an early age. And the intelligent passing and movement of World Cup winners Spain is further evidence of the benefits of fútbol sala, as it is known there. The sport is played professionally most notably in both these countries but also in various others.

Youth football in Britain can place too much emphasis on 11 a side matches, winning at all costs, and does not focus enough on technique or skill acquisition. Introducing young players to futsal could be highly beneficial to their long term development and to the overall standard of player produced by the country.

In futsal, with just four outfield players, the participants learn how to both attack and defend as the formations are not rigid as in 11 a side. It also teaches players to be comfortable on the ball under pressure and in tight situations due to the smaller playing area. Quick thinking and good reflexes are vital, as are a good touch and an eye for a pass.

The game requires constant involvement from all the players on the team giving them a more rounded footballing education, not to mention a good work out. As a defender myself in my youth football days I know it’s possible to go an entire practice session or match and barely touch the ball.

I was a defender from age seven onwards – what chance do our youngsters have of developing a rounded game if we are assigning them set positions almost as soon as they start playing organised football? You end up with attack minded players who don’t know how to defend when required and with defensive players who lack confidence on the ball. Both these deficiencies can be highly detrimental to the team. It’s not that it is harmful for a youngster to learn a position – of course not – but to limit them to that one position could be.

For the advantages of having defenders who are comfortable on the ball look no further than Barcelona’s Gerard Piqué; a solid defender who is composed in possession and can spray a pass better than most midfielders. Good football starts from the back and a team at the top level will struggle to play good football if their defenders don’t have the ability to pick and play a pass rather than simply hoof the ball up the park. Scottish defenders tend to be better schooled in the latter.

However, even Scottish midfielders and forwards are often lacking the technique, close control and vision that could be learned through futsal.

For those not familiar with futsal, here is a bit more about it. One of the key differences between futsal and the form of five a side football commonly played in the UK is that there are boundaries to the pitch, so passes must be precise and well weighted as there is no wall offering forgiveness. When the ball goes out of play it is returned via a kick in, goal kick or corner kick.

Having played five a side matches in Portugal with boundaries to the pitch I can confirm that it makes a big difference to the way the game is played. There is less margin for error in your touch and your pass and it definitely encourages you to play short passes on the deck and to think more about your movement. The entire game feels more thoughtful, as opposed to the chaos that walled five a side can descend into – that’s not to say that futsal isn’t fast paced, because it is.

Fouls are heavily penalised in futsal, which helps to discourage foul play and unsporting behaviour. For example, when a team commits six fouls in a match the opposition are automatically awarded a direct free kick.

A common rule in UK five a side that is not present in futsal is that which only permits the goalkeeper to enter his penalty area. This rule seems a little absurd as it cramps play in the middle of the park and encourages shooting from distance rather than working the ball towards goal, the latter of course being what should really be encouraged and is so in futsal.

There is also no “head height” rule in futsal which means you can play a high pass if that is the best option (and it sometimes is – there are no such things as long passes and short passes or high balls and low balls, only good ones and bad ones, as Gordon Strachan used to say) and goals can be scored with the head. The goals used in futsal allow this too as they are two metres tall and three metres wide, as opposed to the wide, short goals commonly associated with UK five a side. Narrower goals also promote build up play over trying your luck with a long range effort.

Ultimately, the 11-a-side game is the pinnacle, I’m not trying to suggest that futsal should overtake it as the principal game we love, play and watch – far from it – but what I am suggesting is that futsal could be of great benefit in learning the game to those wishing to compete in 11-a-side football.

The famous Dutch philosophy of total football demands that every player should be comfortable in every position but how is this possible if kids are exclusively playing 11-a-side football from a young age? In futsal they can develop skills which are transferrable to the 11-a-side game and of value to any footballing position.

Futsal would adapt well to current facilities already available in Scotland, with new pitch markings, goals and balls all that are really required, so there would be no great practical expense in introducing the game to the country on a larger scale. Furthermore, being a predominantly indoor sport its playability is not at the mercy of Scotland’s climate.

I’m not trying to pretend that futsal carries all the answers, nor am I naive enough to suggest that if Scotland as a nation simply played more futsal then it would by default produce better footballers, however I believe it is something which could contribute towards that and is worth looking at. A suggestion to the SFA and its performance director Mark Wotte, who does seem to have some positive ideas and confidence for the future of the Scottish game – perhaps this should go alongside them.

You can follow Andrew McDougall on Twiiter @andymcd90




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