Development of Futsal in England

by Tom Levitt

A sport played by fewer than 1000 people in England, having its own national side competing in a European Championship, would not be eye-catching news if the sport in question was not played by 25 million players worldwide.

Next month England will play Albania and Cyprus in the preliminary round of the UEFA Futsal Championships. The first steps of the last major European country to fully embrace the sport, England and the FA have finally made a commitment to the sport that promises to revolutionise and rejuvenate our obsession with football.

Futsal is a five-aside game played on hard indoor surfaces, similar sized to basketball courts, using a low rebound sized four ball. It is this basic structure that brings out the skills the players require in this fast paced game. Instant ball control and accurate passing in tight spaces, rather than any brute force, are the compulsory requirements for a futsal player. Sliding is not allowed and the ball is kicked in, with a five second time limit, from the touchline creating a fast moving and exciting game.

Futsal was first devised as a five-aside version of soccer in 1930 by Argentinean, Juan Carlos Ceriani, while he was based in Montevideo, Uruguay. He had been fed up with rain interrupting practice sessions so he devised an indoor soccer game. The term futsal is the international term FIFA has adopted for the game. It is derived from the Spanish, “Futebol Sala” and the Portuguese, “Futebol de Salao”, both of which mean “indoor soccer”.

The game is now played throughout South America and Europe as well as Australia and even Iran. The current World Champions, Spain, have more people playing futsal than the outdoor version of the game. And in Italy futsal players outnumber footballers by four to one with over 2,000 teams and five million players.

Graeme Dell, the Head coach of the England futsal team has said that against this wealth of experience the England team are at present mere novices:
“We’re not expecting to win this tournament but we’re excited to be taking part. It will be a great learning curve for us.”
On the selection of his squad Dell has made it clear that he has an open book, “We are looking at everyone”.

The England team’s belated entrance on to the international futsal scene cannot disguise the fact that the sport is still in its infancy in this country and requires a considerable investment of both time and money by the FA to establish itself in England.

The fact that there are not many people playing futsal in England has created a situation far from ideal for national team selection. The England side that travelled to Malaysia for the Kula Lumpur Fives (another widely used term for futsal) Invitational Tournament in June 2003 contained a hastily selected squad of players. The England team were making their international debut and although they lost heavily to Iran and Uzbekistan they were unlucky to lose 2-3 against Indonesia in their final match of the tournament. Dermot Collins, FA Manager of small-sided games, admitted that the three weeks they had had to prepare for the tournament was not adequate. Five of the players had been playing their first competitive futsal game only three days before the opening fixture.

For January’s European Championship matches Collins and Dell have managed to put together a more ideal timetable of preparation. An initial squad of 25 players was selected to take part in a four-day training weekend from 3rd December in Lilleshaw. They will then be travelling to Portugal to play two games against first division sides before receiving some coaching from the Portuguese national coach. The preliminary selection will then be cut down to a final squad, announced on 24th December, of just 12 players who will travel to Albania the following month.

Graeme Dell has also said that they will be looking at the football academy system in England and at players who have the technical skills to transfer into futsal. They will not however be following a path some countries have tried in selecting a team made up of 11-a-side footballers.
“What is clear is that at the highest level you cannot just take a group of 11-a-side footballers, however talented, and win an international tournament.”

To this end the FA is already looking ahead and making plans to get futsal played regularly all over the country, including schools. In July 2003 the first ever FA National Futsal Championships were held at the Aldershot Military Sports Complex. Twelve teams who had qualified from six regional competitions in Sheffield, Pendle, Wirral, London, Cheltenham and Grimsby contested the championship. The championship winners, Sheffield Hallam University, gained a place in the qualifying round of the 2004/5 UEFA Futsal Club Competition.

Last month a combined mens and womens futsal club was set up the university and already has thirty players. The current national champions had originally been running their futsal team from the Men’s Football Club.
Sheffield is set to play a central role in promoting the sport in the coming year. Sheffield Utd Football Club has agreed to the use of their academy facility as a venue for a National University Championship to be held next March. British University Sports Association (BUSA) have given their support to the proposed tournament and if enough universities can be encouraged to take up the sport by next March then BUSA will put forward a futsal universities team for the World Student Games in October 2004. The National Championships next July are also set to be held in Sheffield, at the English Institute for Sport.

Collins has said that the FA is looking to run a minimum of eight regional leagues, ideally including the six regional sections used for the qualification for the first national championships. These regional leagues will include university teams as well as club sides with British universities able to access futsal balls and subsidised goals in return for starting up a team. At the last meeting of the FA’s national futsal advisory group, the regional qualifying competitions for the 2004 national finals were discussed. The Pendle league, based in Colne, is the oldest league in the country having started out in 1988, and, together with the Street Soccer league in Grimsby is anticipated by the FA to become one of the regional leagues. A university team from York has competed in the Pendle league, which now has 11 teams, and is affiliated to the Lancashire FA. Through the Lancashire FA they have been able to apply for financial help to cover administration costs up to a maximum £800 allowance.

Clive Dinsdale is part of the committee that now runs the non-profit making league and a member of the FA National Futsal Advisory Group that meets every three months. Clive is managers the league’s most successful team, Santos FC whose youth team can only ever play against adult teams as no other teams of their age group exist in the area.

The lack of widespread enthusiasm for the game can only be blamed on a lack of awareness of what futsal actually is. Mick Matthews, who runs a youth league programme at the Warner Centre in Hull, sees the name as the biggest barrier to greater enthusiasm in playing the sport, he said: “Call it 5-a-side with European rules and there is no problem”. People just do not have an awareness of what futsal is and the first reaction is one of scepticism. Kevin Bryant who runs ‘Street Soccer’ in the Grimsby area, does not tell the teams that the league is a futsal league and instead introduces the specific rules and different ball to them, “they soon understand and catch on”.

Street Soccer has 32 teams split into three leagues with a timetable of a winter and summer leagues together with a cup competition. At the moment this league does not have any youth sides and while Kevin has organised Futsal Sport Camps at Thorpe Park for 8-14 year olds he admitted that the time it took to get futsal going at senior level has left him struggling to get a junior league organised.
After the next Futsal World Cup in Chinese Taipei in 2004 there are plans to introduce a World Youth Cup. Victor Beceiro, who is responsible for futsal at FIFA, has said that financial considerations and a busy calendar have to be looked at before such a competition could be accommodated but added that: “Needless to say, such a World championship would have a largely positive effect in the development of the sport, attracting the attention of the youngest futsal generations.” At the moment England does not have a youth side in existence to compete in such a competition.

Collins has said that the FA’s aim is to, “get a cluster of schools in the country playing futsal and to bring them together in regional festivals.” The FA is working with the Schools Sports Co-ordination Network to see a futsal schools package consisting of rules, balls and videos introduced. Recently a futsal youth side from Queensland, Australia, toured England but because of the lack of futsal youth teams in England they could only play football sides. Brian Keightley, in charge of international tours at Queensland Futsal, said he would hope to return to England in the future and play futsal teams. Futsal has been well organised in Queensland, with a yearly school championship competition as well as international tours twice a year.

There are signs of the knowledge of the game spreading into the junior ranks in England through the actions and initiatives of individuals. In Hull Matthews started a futsal league programme 15 months ago that is entirely made up of junior teams. He has over 80 teams of players coming once a month to the Warner Centre in Hull every Monday and Friday to play futsal. They are divided into eight leagues of around 12 teams. As an ex-professional, Matthews got involved in futsal after watching a video of a continental match. Originally a teacher on UEFA coaching courses, the game left in his own words, “a massive impression” on him after being sent the video of the game by Collins from the FA.

The objective behind the sessions is to give junior players, who are all from local football sides, a chance to experience a different style of football. Matthews said: “The game is far superior to football. If you compare the two styles futsal wins hands down. For a start it is not played with a giant sized tennis ball. The essential style of the game is not just hoofing it long but passing, moving and creating angles.” Matthews does not limit the development of new styles of play to the children. The sessions also give him an opportunity to give free coaching seminars about futsal to the individual team coaches and help continue the spread of knowledge about the training benefits of the game to junior players.
In Lancashire there are signs of futsal spreading from a senior to a junior level. Players from teams who play in the Pendle League have begun to introduce the game into schools in the Burnley and Colne area. Towneley High School Burnley and Prinet School in Colne are among the first to introduce futsal to their pupils.
Alan Riley, a teacher at Tonneley High, plays for a team as well as being a member of the committee running the Pendle league. He started to get children from his school playing futsal back in 1991. The school now operates two lunchtime leagues, one for Years 8,9 and another for Years 10,11. He does not receive any help from the FA in terms of funding or equipment. Instead, every time he goes on holiday to Spain he replenishes the school’s supply of futsal balls. The school has to make do with steel handball goals borrowed from a local sports centre but needs light portable ones.
Riley believes that the FA needs to start making a substantial commitment to futsal in schools. It is not just about equipment because one of the major issues that needs to be addressed is that of adequate coaching and refereeing in the game. Alan would like to go on official futsal training and refereeing courses but the FA has so far not introduced any, despite the fact that before futsal can be widely introduced schools need coaches and teachers with a proper knowledge of the rules and techniques of the game.
There is a proposal to for futsal to be taught as part of teacher training courses at a small number of universities in England. This would create PE teachers who are capable of coaching futsal at schools, as well as teaching other people to become coaches. However, such proposals have so far not been confirmed. In the short term, John Warnock Director at Sheffield Academy is planning to hold coaching and refereeing seminars at the academy under the instruction of Robin Russell, Head of FA Learning.

At the moment, futsal at a junior level is taking place in pockets around the country, waiting for the coordinated approach that would bring the actions of individuals into a collective youth set up and greatly benefit the national side in future years. In the more immediate future the Pendle League committee is hoping to start up another league in Burnley so that children now playing the sport at school can carry on playing when they leave and not lose that early exposure and connection with the game. There have been early consultations with Burnley Football Club about the possible use of Turf Moor’s indoor pitch facilities as a venue for the league.
The future of futsal is not just confined to clubs and schools as Premier league clubs are now starting to take an interest in the game. In order to improve the competitiveness of the England team the FA is keen to see the national side include players from club’s academies. The stumbling block has been whether clubs want to get involved with futsal. It is rumoured that Everton, Aston Villa and Chelsea football clubs have already expressed an interest in introducing the game into their academies. However, Everton Football Club’s Academy Director Ray Hall has said that they have no interest in the game, “we can condition players to keep it on the ground and pass without the introduction of futsal”. Despite this rejection, the FA still believe that within five years there will be a Futsal Premier League with premier league clubs such as Manchester United having their own futsal sides.

Dell has said that the main idea behind the FA creating a national team is, “to raise public awareness and interest.” Since the 1970s street soccer has been declining, young children no longer play football down narrow alleyways and in between motor vehicles parked on their street. The sport of futsal, as played on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro and the sports halls of Spain, can replace this traditional schooling of previous generations of young footballers. As recognition that limiting futsal to indoor courts was never going to allow it to become a truly global sport, FIFA has now said that futsal can be played anywhere. John Warnock predicts that, “Within ten years the 5-a-side market in England will be overtaken and there will be more futsal players than 11-a-side players.”