Courtesy: London Derry Sentinel


Harkin named in historic Futsal squad

19 November 2008

INSTITUTE'S Neil Harkin has been named in the Republic of Ireland's first ever senior Futsal international squad.
The gifted winger is in the Ireland Futsal squad that will travel to Budapest later this month for two matches against Hungary, on Wednesday and Thursday, November 26th and 27th.
Futsal is an indoor, five-a-side version of the game, but differs from the usual indoor football in a number of ways, and has clear pitch markings.
Harkin, like many of the players in the squad have sampled international Futsal at Under 21 level as recently as last April when the Under 21's competed in the UEFA Under 21 Futsal Championship qualifying tournament.
Manager Derek O'Neill recognises that there's a difficult task ahead in Hungary.
"They have had a National Futsal League in place for many years now with their entire National team playing professionally," he said.
"Ireland has only recently embraced the game and has a short National League season mainly featuring Under 21 eircom League of Ireland players and young Neil who has moved to the Irish League with Institute.
"However, I'm happy to start mainly with the youngsters and bring them through this learning curve with the expectation that the team being built will become more competitive in the near future. It's a great opportunity for these players."





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