The launch of the Strategic plan for the development of Futsal in Ireland by UEFA president, Michel Platini has been the impetus for an upsurge in activity in boys and girls schools and schoolboys/girls league clubs around the country in recent weeks. Indeed the bottom up / top down approach being favoured in the plan will also see significant progress in the development of a National and International level programme in the coming months.

In the last few weeks alone, almost 100 schools in the South Leinster region have participated in a Futsal competition driven by FAI Development Officers in the area.
The competition which was rolled out on a regional basis, culminated in a fantastic finals day at the National Basketball Arena, Dublin. Dublin Oak Academy were crowned boys champions while Grennan College from Kilkenny claimed the girl’s title.

A number of prominent schoolboys/girls leagues have also adopted a Futsal module into their competition structures with leagues in Athlone, Midlands, Mayo and Donegal providing Futsal activity for their young players. This was the perfect antidote to the recent run of bad weather which has seen schoolboys/girls fixtures washed out around the country and the leagues must be highly commended for their initiative.

At the forefront of this Futsal revolution is the Dublin & Distict Schoolboys league (DDSL) which is currently providing Futsal activity for 2000 children each week over a five week period. Feedback from clubs, players, coaches and parents has been positive which augurs well for the expansion of the project next year. The DDSL is the largest competitive schoolboys/girls league per capita in Europe and the introduction of Futsal will ensure the development of better ball skills among the younger children in the league going forward.

The Anna Livia Cup, which is a Futsal tournament for boys and girls in Dublin’s Inner city areas will come to a climax next week at Dublin’s ALSSA centre. The boy’s tournament alone featured 100 teams at U13 level and the last 16 teams will compete for the 2008 title on Sunday February 3rd. The winners of both Anna Livia cup competitions will win a trip to a premiership game at Old Trafford courtesy of Wharton’s Travel.

The first weekend in February will also see the beginning of the new Eircom FAI Futsal League of Ireland season. This year, the competition will reflect a truly National flavour with 16 League of Ireland clubs participating for the substantial cash prize and the right to be Ireland’s representative in the 2008 UEFA Futsal Cup. The Competition centres will be the National Basketball Arena, Dublin, the University of Limerick and the AURA Leisure centre, Letterkenny, Donegal.

The formation of the Eircom Futsal League of Ireland last season has yielded a Futsal development squad at U21 level. The development squad will form the basis of the Ireland U21 Futsal team which will take part in the qualifying stages of the inaugural UEFA U21 Futsal championships. The squad has been preparing with a number of friendly matches against prominent European clubs such as Benfica and Sporting Lisbon. Such accommodating clubs provide the U21 squad and coaching staff with valuable lessons which they can learn from before taking their first international competitive steps and their valuable help is very much appreciated.

With the 21s being drawn in the same group as Holland, Spanish neighbours, Andorra and Azerbaijan, a number of tough preparatory matches are essential.

All in all, Futsal fever is taking a grip on Ireland and hopefully it will not be too long before the game establishes a permanent place in the busy schedules of leagues throughout the country.






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