Courtesy: www.sundayherald.comA whole new ball game for Scotland Futsal: By Natasha Woods
AN army club from the Ukraine, two Nigerian sides and three teams from a new professional league in Moldova are among those clubs heading to Scotland this week as the country hosts its first international Futsal tournament.
If the concept of Futsal is new to you, take note. The organiser of the event believes the only five-a-side game officially endorsed by Fifa has the potential to become the big growth sport in Scotland.
“We are talking about something that could be huge. There is a groundswell of interest now and you could be talking about one of the biggest national sports ever in terms of growth,” said Mark Potter.
It may seem an ambitious statement given the localised nature of the game at the moment. The only recognised league is in Perth, which will host this week’s tournament. It features 20 senior teams and some 15 junior sides. Beyond that five-a-side football in Scotland is of the more familiar variety, with those who play it accustomed to bruising encounters with the walls which bound the playing area and rivals’ elbows and shoulders.
“The problem with the kind of five-a-side we traditionally play is that it is not recognised internationally,” explained Potter. “The sort of blood and guts affair that goes on here is not acceptable on the cont-inent. If you want to play at a high level it has to be Futsal. But selling that message is hard because the first thing you are hit with is that it is a ‘soft’ game because there is no contact. My response is basketball is non-contact too and those guys know how to handle themselves.
“At least now the game is getting more of a profile. People are starting to watch it on stations like Eurosport and can see how attractive it is.”
Futsal has no trouble selling its message further afield. Fifa claim the game, derived from the Portuguese for soccer ‘FUTebol’ and the Spanish word for indoor ‘SALa’, now has more exponents globally than the full-sized outdoor version.
Essentially similar to five-a-side football, Futsal features a smaller court, touchlines instead of walls – which remove rebounds from the game – rolling substitutions and a ball designed to bounce lower.
The result, according to Potter, is a fast, skilful game which the likes of Pele, Zico and Ronaldo have all credited with helping them develop their skills.
“It is massive in South America, Spain, Italy and eastern Europe. And it is no coincidence that we all accept that players from those areas are more technically superior than ours. Anyone who comes to Perth to watch Futsal for the first time will be frightened by the level of skill and the pace – the technical skills of the teams from Moldova and the Ukraine will be devastati ng,” said Potter.
Futsal was officially endorsed by the SFA 18 months ago and since then local organisers like Potter have worked with the Scottish Amateur Football Association to draw up a business plan to develop and promote the game. “Everybody automatically assumes the SFA have a lot of cash and are throwing money at Futsal, but they are not. We got a grant of £5,000 to get this tournament up and running and all the teams are paying their own way here,” said Potter.
“Ultimately our dream is to have leagues all over the country, with the top teams from each area coming together to play in a national league at the end of the year. But at this stage everything is being done on a volunteer basis. What we are trying to do is identify facilities which could be capable of hosting Futsal leagues and then find volunteers to take up the challenge.”
While Futsal encourages the development of close control, its advocates point out it is a game in its own right rather than simply a feeder into the 11-a-side version.
On the continent youngsters traditionally play both before choosing one at the age 14 or 15, and with professional leagues up and running, it is possible to make a good living playing Futsal.
“There is definitely a communication of skills between the two games, but you have to decide which you want to play. The bottom line is that the more people you have kicking a ball, the wider the bottom of the pyramid and hopefully, the more who progress to the top,” said Potter.
The Moldovan sides will go into this week’s tournament as favourites. The competition kicks off on Thursday and runs through to Sunday at the Bell’s Sport Centre in Perth. Four teams from the Scottish league will also take part as well as an amateur team from Barcelona and amateurs GCLS of Grimsby.
03 August 2003
