Courtesy: The FA.com

Dell eyes qualifiers

By Jamie Bradbury

Monday, 18 December 2006


England v France
International Futsal Friendly Double-Header
Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 December 2006
7pm kick off (both games)
English Institute of Sport, Sheffield
Tickets available on the night - £3 for adults, concessions get in free.

England Futsal Team Head Coach Graeme Dell will have one eye on January’s UEFA European Championship qualifiers when his team take on France in two matches this week.

With an important mini-tournament on the horizon and an eventual place at next year’s UEFA Finals in Portugal up for grabs, Dell will be looking to finalise his squad this week and is looking for some big performances from his side.

“Next month, we embark on the pre-qualification for the UEFA European Futsal Championships in a four team group in Romania. We’ll be up against hosts Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria all who are ranked in similar positions to us within UEFA,” said Dell.

“I have an idea of who will be in the squad, but these two games against France will help finalise the team that will be going to Romania.

He added: “Realistically, we still have a long way to go to be able to have a chance of qualification but these tournaments act as a good yardstick by which to measure that distance.”

Dell has been in charge of the Three Lions since their first-ever game back in January 2004 and says he has seen a vast improvement in the players on the pitch. Futsal has been played around the world for many years, and now this fast-paced version of the five-a-side game played all over England is beginning to take hold on these shores.

The UEFA ‘A’ Licence Coach, who as a player spent time at Watford, Wycombe Wanderers and Slough Town, is hopeful that the interest in Futsal will continue to grow in England and says it can become a massive development aid for both small-sided and eleven-a-side players alike.

“We have to remember that even with this National Team we are in an education phase. We are relatively new to the Futsal arena and have yet to develop a generation of players with Futsal skills and knowledge which is important.

“All of our players have been through Academies or Centres of Excellence at professional clubs and most now play at a decent non-league level, but their core skills are still some way behind those of other nations at a similar level.

“However, I have already noticed improvements in all of the players on our F30 Programme in their eleven-a-side environments and many of them put that down to their Futsal education so there is some evidence that it is working,” added Dell.

“Futsal develops a more all round player; the game requires precision in execution of passing and movement down to the centimetre and once embraced and developed those skills are easily transferred to the bigger game of football.”



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