Courtesy: The Mercury


Face to Face

Helping to grow an awareness of Futsal throughout the country

May 12, 2006

By Sports Reporter

While South African football gears up for World Cup 2010, the step-child of the game is hopeful of a positive spin-off. South African Indoor Football Association President Poobie Govindasamy spoke to Kamlesh Gosai and highlighted some of the ups and downs of Futsal before leaving with the SA squad for an international friendly tournament in Mozambique.


What is the tournament about?

It's a four-team event which can hopefully become an annual Easter competition. We had hoped to hold it last weekend, but for various reasons it had to be delayed. Besides us and the hosts, Angola and Libya are the other sides. The initiative came from Manuel Matero, the General Secretary of Mozambique Futsal. He studied in Portugal so he experienced the value that this game adds to football. He contacted us with the aim of trying to lift the game here in Southern Africa, because in North Africa it's already strong.


Futsal was officially introduced under the Safa umbrella in 2002, but it still remains low-key. Why is this?

We started in 2002 and it's been hard to get it off the ground. There's been misunderstandings by those involved in football about the technical details of Futsal. We get the wrong types of boots and balls, so when we start we are already ill-equipped. Before this trip we couldn't train properly because of the lack of proper facilities. Those that were suitable were unavailable, so we had to take the team all the way to Pietermaritzburg to train. We're going through a learning phase and Safa is trying to help, although there are financial constraints.


What's the biggest challenge?

It's to make the public aware of Futsal's importance to football. Brazil's Ronaldinho is an example. Everything he does comes from a foundation in futsal. From a youth point of view, more can play because you only need five to make a team. There could also be three or four-a-side teams. This way more children get an opportunity to play. Another advantage is space. Futsal can be played almost anywhere because you don't need a big space.


What have been Saifa's highlights to date?

In spite of very limited resources, Futsal South Africa has managed to travel twice to Egypt, once to Malaysia and twice to Mozambique. This is our third trip to Mozambique. Forming the association was the first step. We launched a league for senior players and now we want to get the game into schools. For this trip in particular Safa, through its sponsorship with Adidas, supplied us with a full kit comprising playing, training and casual wear for the players and coaches. Through Safa's relationship with Southern Sun Hotels we arranged accommodation and meals for the players and coaches at the Holiday Inn, Marine Parade, in Durban, for the duration of the training camp.


What's the future of Futsal?

With World Cup 2010 in South Africa we should see a positive spin-off for futsal. KZN Sports Minister Amichand Rajbansi also shares our vision for the sport to be introduced at schools. This time we negotiated TV coverage of our matches with SuperSport, so that will help us grow the awareness of Futsal across the country.



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