Courtesy: FIFA.com


Futsal and Beach Soccer Enjoying Rising Interest, FIFA Research Shows


At its meeting in Zurich on 13 September, the Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee under chairman Ricardo Terra Teixeira expressed its great satisfaction with the development of both futsal and beach soccer. Recently conducted research among FIFA’s members underlined the rising interest in these disciplines of association football. Of those associations responding (125), 72% are already involved in futsal and the remaining indicated that they wished to start futsal activities in the near future. In total, 1.7 million male and 175,000 female futsal players are officially registered and are competing regularly in futsal leagues around the world. At the same time, the introduction of beach soccer to the associations is in full progress, with detailed information provided via seminars to 170 of the 207 associations of FIFA. Courses and development seminars for administrators for both futsal and beach soccer were launched this year, and will continue into next year as well.

“I am convinced that beach soccer will soon be as successful as beach volleyball. We are very proud to have this form of football in our portfolio, combining traditional football with a strong fun factor. It was an important step to integrate beach soccer into the FIFA family,” said FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.





The surveys confirm that the various development initiatives taken by FIFA’s Development division, including regular educational programmes and seminars as well as assistance programmes to launch futsal and beach soccer in all confederations, are paying off. The addition of futsal as part of the Pan-American Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro from 23 to 28 July 2007 with 4 teams each from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF is another important milestone in the promotion of this sport. The next FIFA Futsal World Cup will also take place in Brazil in 2008 with an inspection tour for venue selection to be conducted in November 2006. Recently revised Laws of the Game for both futsal and beach soccer have been very appreciated by the associations and are in line with FIFA’s quality standard. This year, for the first time, all associations are playing in accordance with the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game – another important step to foster the growth of the sport.



In addition, the committee decided that the 2007 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup would be held in Brazil again, with the precise location yet to be defined. “We have made significant progress in raising this new competition to FIFA standards, including refereeing and the Laws of the Game. Next year, the third edition will complete the full implementation of our competition standards and therefore, to host it in this experienced country is vital,” said committee chairman Teixeira. The bidding process to host the 2008 and 2009 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups will begin by the end of 2006.



The committee also welcomed the further production of advanced training material for futsal and beach soccer including coaching handbooks, referee instructor development training programmes as well as audiovisual material. In line with education material and the promotion of beach soccer, a promotional film with former French international Eric Cantona is in production. Cantona made history last year as coach of the first FIFA beach soccer world champions. This year’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, scheduled from 2 to 12 November 2006, will take place at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro with 16 teams from all confederations battling it out for the title. The 2006 edition is also the first tournament to have qualifiers taking place in all six confederations.



The meeting concluded with the induction of two new committee members, Vairani Davio from Tahiti and Samir Zaher from Egypt. The two new members were officially welcomed by the FIFA President and the chairman.




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