Courtesy: All Africa.com


Futsal Coaching and Refereeing Course Underway in Johannesburg

26 March 2012

The South African Football Association (SAFA) has embarked on a campaign to grow the sport of indoor soccer (Futsal) throughout South Africa.

An introductory course for the coaches and referees was conducted last week and on Monday (26 March 2012) the participants started with the advanced level of the course in Johannesburg.

While the theoretical work is taking place at the Stay City hotel in Berea, the practical side of the course will be done at the Indoor Centre of the Wits University grounds.

Sixty participants are in attendance, with one half learning refereeing while the other studying coaching. The course comes to an end on Friday, 30 March.

'Futsal is a variant of the game of football that is played on a smaller pitch indoors. It is also called Indoor Football and is played between two teams each with five players - one of whom is a goalkeeper.

Unlimited substitutions are permitted. Unlike other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by lines; walls or boards are not used. Futsal is also played with a smaller ball with less bounce than a regular football.

The surface, ball and rules create an emphasis on improvisation, creativity and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces.'

FIFA Futsal coaching instructor Scott Gilligan will conduct the training for the coaches, while Asselam Khan, FIFA Futsal refereeing instructor, will handle the training of referees.

"We would like to thank SAFA for the invite to conduct this very important course, and for us it is a good thing to be coming to a country that is starting to get into this game.

Not many countries are into the sport but we see a lot of potential in South Africa. We believe that the more you learn, the more you are able to pass the knowledge to others so the sport can grow at a rapid pace.

I hope that with the right dedication and good application these participants can help this sport. Also, we have noticed that most of the football playing nations are using this game at development level, which in turn helps their countries prosper internationally.

If you start kids with this game, in three or four years time they become better footballer when they have to play the 11-a-side game," said Gilligan.

'I am very passionate about this game, and it gives great pleasure to pass on the knowledge to others. I am hopeful that we will be able to more coaches, referees and instructors for the future. This is the right step that SAFA has taken," said Khan.

Each province will be represented by three coaches and three referees.

Chairman of the Futsal Committee Aubrey Baartman, feels this is a good start towards developing the game of Futsal in South Africa.

"We've been struggling to get this course off the ground for some time now but I'm glad that we're now able to take this course to members of the regions across the country.

With the Futsal coaching and refereeing course we will be able to build a good base through which referees and coaches will be able to empower players at regional level. A big thanks goes to the Futsal Committee and FIFA for adding us in the development course.

We hope that through the game of Futsal, we will be creating a strong base of players to represent the country at national team level," said Baartman.

SAFA Technical Director, Serame Letsoaka declared the course opened.

"Previously, as South Africans, we did not take this game seriously but we had to strategise and give this sport the focus it deserves. It is one of the ten national teams at SAFA and it was equally important to take it forward.

Our first point of call was to organise this course, to develop the developers of the game so that when we start promoting it, we have people who can teach the others.

We are hopeful that in the not-so-distant future we will have every Local Football Association (LFA), region and province putting together a league so we can take this game to the people and in return we can compete around the world," said Letsoaka.




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