Courtesy: UEFA.com

Futsal has bright future

Tuesday 3 July 2007

UEFA General Secretary David Taylor hailed the growth of the UEFA Futsal Cup at Monday's draw for the seventh edition in Nyon, Switzerland.

Record entry
From 27 entries in the first competition in 2001/02, 44 teams will compete in this season's tournament, which for the second year will culminate in a high-profile final four event in April, after the success of the new round in Murcia. Mr Taylor praised the UEFA Futsal Cup's expansion, both in its organisation and commercial reach.

Achievements
"Since 2001, when the UEFA Futsal Cup was launched, we have achieved quite a lot of successes," Mr Taylor said. "The list is not exhaustive, but today more than 80 per cent of the UEFA member associations have entered a club in the competition. We have successfully launched the much requested final four, have created a club manual for hosts, sent tournament administrators to assist clubs with the organisation of the competition, and signed a three-year contract with Eurosport for the broadcast of the finals."

Professional structure
Futsal now comes under the same division at UEFA that runs the leading professional football competitions, and Mr Taylor believes the day is close when the small-sided sport begins to generate significant revenue. "UEFA strongly believes in the good values and the growth potential of futsal," he said. "This is why we are willing to introduce a top professional structure for the top teams. But we are also aware that, currently, professionalism in futsal still represents a minority. Most of the teams in Europe are still playing at amateur level. We are therefore also working on the development of futsal, organising workshops and conferences, and providing clubs with consistent financial support. Given the potential of the game, we hope that this will change in the very near future, and that futsal will be a self-financed activity."



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