Futsal – The StrappingTeenager

Interview:Jesús Candelas

The SuperstarPresident

Getting the Show on the Road

N EWS LET TE RF O R COAC H ES

S U P P LE M E NT N O . 2O CTO B E R 200 6

FUTS

AL

2

I M P R E S S U M

EDITORIAL GROUPAndy RoxburghGraham TurnerFrits Ahlstrøm

PRODUCTIONAndré VieliDominique MaurerAtema Communication SAPrinted by Cavin SA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSJavier LozanoLaurent MorelPavel GognidzeGreg Demetriou

COVERThe UEFA Futsal Cup has been dominated by Spanish clubs, who have won it four times out of five. Boomerang Interviú are the current title-holders.(PHOTO: E.SERRANO/EIKON GRAFICA)

KO

RO

TAEV

/PR

ESSP

HO

TOS/

GET

TY I

MA

GES

FUTSAL – THESTRAPPING TEENAGERE D I T O R I A LBY PETR FOUSEK, CHAIRMANUEFA FUTSAL COMMITTEE

Have a look at a strapping teenager! Having been born in most of Europe’snational associations between the 1960sand 1980s and nurtured as a baby, itwas officially acknowledged by UEFA inthe 1990s that the small child had, in 16 years, grown into a strong boy whocould now stand apart from his older,more experienced and more widely educated brother – football – and his sister – women’s football – and was nowready to play a full role and take animportant place in the European footballfamily. Commercial doors were openedwide when UEFA gave futsal professionalrecognition in 2005, allowing it, like theoutdoor game, to mix promotional targets with development projects. Thisallowed the youngster the chance to gain a Master of Arts at the best univer-sity, alongside diamond fellows such asthe European Football Championship,the European Under-21 Championship,the UEFA Cup and the most famousmember of the family, the UEFA Cham-pions League.

But ‘adult status’ inevitably implies newchallenges: for UEFA itself, for UEFA’s Futsal Committee, for the national asso-ciations and national futsal committees,futsal clubs, players, coaches, refereesand managers. Futsal has reached andpassed a lot of milestones in the lastdecade. UEFA established structures andsystems, created its own futsal commit-tee, administration, regulations and, aftertesting the temperature of the baby’sbathwater with a European tournament,plunged it enthusiastically into a regularEuropean Futsal Championship fornational teams as from 1999. Soon afterthat, a UEFA Futsal Cup – a club compe-tition for champions of European coun-tries – was born. A UEFA European futsalconference is now staged on a regularbasis, while UEFA has been steadilyimproving activities related to futsal ref-

erees and delegates. The popularity offutsal, the number of players and teams,levels of media interest, spectator atten-dance figures and the number of coun-tries affiliated to futsal and developingthe sport have all climbed steadily. Thedevelopment of futsal has really movedinto another gear. It’s hard to think backand recall that, in 1992, only ten asso-ciations sent their national teams to thefirst-ever continental qualifiers for theFIFA World Championship. In 2006 (yes, only 14 years later), 40 associa-tions entered their champion clubs for the UEFA Futsal Cup qualifiers. Thatrepresents a growth rate of 400%!

This growth is a clear indicator of themain positive features of futsal – inter-esting play with lots of goals and skill, acomfortable environment for spectatorsin indoor facilities, and an entertainmentlevel which attracts the media and spon-sors. In the meantime, futsal and foot-ball have unequivocally demonstratedthat they are a strong, united couple, well able to face challenges from the‘outside world’.

This means that the national associationsare now well equipped when it comes to upgrading the reputation of the gamein the indoor arena and competing withother indoor disciplines. Futsal is alsoproving that it is an excellent tool foryouth education. The game teachesyoung players technical skills, ball control,movement at speed, small-area orienta-tion, creativity and fast shooting. It is notan accident that so many of the Braziliannational football players laid the founda-tions of their game in futsal schools. And many players realise that, even ifthey don’t possess all the qualities necessary for a successful climb to thesummit of the outdoor game, they might have exactly the right talents tomake their national futsal team.

That explains why futsal is playing anincreasingly relevant role in UEFA’s grass-roots programmes. And it is definitely a product which will produce rich har-vests in the future.

When the number of 40 associations is mentioned, it means that futsal is still

3

12 short of a ‘full house’ in UEFA’s 52member associations. Further delays inthose countries could sow the seeds thatcould give rise to troubles such as ‘dissi-dent’ competitions. The developmentplan devised by the UEFA administrationand the UEFA Futsal Committee is basedon a full and united family – and thisobjective now seems very attainable. In sporting terms, the decision by UEFA’sExecutive Committee to expand the final tournament of the European FutsalChampionship from eight to twelve partic-ipants represents a major step forward,not only because it gives better mathe-matical chances of qualifying but mainlybecause competing with hopes of qual-ifying always means greater motivation. And it means that more national associa-tions will benefit from the experience ofcompeting at the highest level in a finaltournament. Establishing a youth compe-tition is another subject that is high on the futsal agenda and this is being dis-cussed intensively, along with other keyprojects, such as coaching, refereeing,administration, women’s futsal and so on.

Maintaining the tempo we have set inrecent years and even accelerating thegrowth of futsal will serve to underline the strength of the ‘product’. But, as more and more nations join the futsalfamily, the most important message to transmit is that, the more you invest in the beginning, the more you stand to gain in the end.

Futsal is getting bigger and bigger in European football.

UEF

A

4

JESÚS CANDELAS1 • What is the key to BoomerangInterviú’s sustained success in theUEFA Futsal Cup?“Dinamo made us work hard for thetitle. And I think that winning it this year was a visible demonstration thatBoomerang Interviú’s success story isn’tdependent on the technical, tactical,physical, academic or professional quali-ties of the players as individuals. In myopinion, the key elements are other per-sonal and emotional factors that makethe team function as a collective unitand help us to attain our objectives.”

2 • In the outdoor game, many tech-nicians have said that the top clubcompetition, the UEFA ChampionsLeague, is of a higher standard thanthe top national team competitions.Would that opinion be applicable to futsal as well?“In futsal, no such comparison is possi-ble. Competition structures and inter-national fixture lists are totally different.And then there are other factors relatedto performance that make each compe-tition a totally different scenario from the others, yet no less attractive. I thinkthe parameters are so different that they help the players to feel motivatedand to relish the challenge of attainingsuccess at both club and national teamlevels.”

3 • If we look at European club futsal, we have to acknowledge thelarge number of imported players in the top teams – notably Brazilian. Is their presence positive for European futsal? Do they help localplayers to raise their standards?“I think it’s inevitable that in sports likefootball, basketball, handball or futsalwhich generate financial resources – atdifferent levels, of course – there is a tendency to recruit foreign players. That is natural. But in Spain there’s a contra-dictory situation. We enjoy a privilegedposition in that we have a certainsupremacy in world championships fornational teams yet, in spite of that, weimport more than we export. So the challenge currently facing us is to find theright balance. We need to stem the ava-lanche of average talent which has putthe brake on the development of Spanishplayers. This is a question that has still not been resolved. There is anotherimportant factor: signing a contract is noguarantee that the player will identify withthe club and give his all in the pursuit ofobjectives. So the answer is complex. Butif recruitment is done sensibly, the pres-ence of top players is positive and they arerole models for local players to imitate.”

4 • Spain and Russia have carved outsupremacy at club and national team

levels. What do the rest have to do to catch up with you?“I would focus on domestic competitionsand say that the way forward depends on professional structures and organisa-tional skills. I also think that many clubswould benefit from a more ambitiousapproach in sporting terms – which wouldhelp them to move closer to the leadersof the pack. We also need to cultivatesupport from the media and persuadeplayers and coaches to put themselves100 per cent into futsal. That way, we can consolidate the base of the pyramidand then superimpose much strongerinternational competitions.”

5 • You mentioned a professionalapproach but how important is it tohave a professional futsal league?“I think we need to maintain clear ideasabout our own identity. I don’t regard thegrowth of futsal as being dependent onattracting mass interest in competitions.That can happen but it’s often an isolatedphenomenon. On other occasions it’sbecause solid sporting structures havebeen built up. We shouldn’t forget thatthe important thing is physical educationfor children. This is the prime basis onwhich futsal should be built and it shouldnever be allowed to slip into secondplace. But, at the same time, the steadyimprovement of futsal as a sport depends

UEF

A

I N T E R V I E WBY GRAHAM TURNER

ON SUNDAY 7 MAY, BOOMERANG INTERVIÚ RESTRICTED DINAMO MOSKOW TO A 4-3 WIN

IN MOSCOW TO CLINCH A 9-7 AGGREGATE VICTORY THAT GAVE THE SPANISH CLUB ITS SECOND

UEFA FUTSAL CUP TITLE IN THREE YEARS. IT REPRESENTED ANOTHER STRIKING FEATHER IN THE

CAP WORN BY A MAN WHO WAS BORN IN MADRID JUST UNDER 49 YEARS AGO, WHO HAS COACHED

IN SPAIN’S PREMIER DIVISION FOR THE LAST 17 SEASONS, WHO HAS SPENT THE LAST EIGHT

OF THEM AT THE CLUB BASED IN ALCALÁ DE HENARES JUST OUTSIDE THE SPANISH CAPITAL, WHO

HAS BEEN VOTED BEST COACH IN THE SPANISH LEAGUE THREE TIMES, AND WHO HAS, IN

ADDITION TO THE EUROPEAN SUCCESSES IN 2004 AND 2006, WON FOUR SPANISH CHAMPIONSHIPS,

FIVE CUPS, FOUR SUPER CUPS AND TWO WORLD CLUB TITLES. HATS OFF TO:

5

on establishing professional standards in all the elements within the game.”

6 • How, when and why did youbecome a professional futsal coach?“I never imagined that I would get towhere I am now! In the 1986/87 season,I started as fitness trainer with the firstteam and head coach of the second team at my first proper club, Marsanz FS.So I would urge everybody never to putlimits on your dreams. They can cometrue. Coaching, for me, is the great chal-lenge of preserving the special passion for the game that made me agree tocoach the teams that the parents’ asso-ciation wanted to organise at the CiudadPegaso junior school.”

7 • How would you describe coacheducation structures in Spain – andthe opportunities for retraining?“Rather than comment on the educationalstandards that the new generation of fut-sal coaches are acquiring, I would say thatwe need to define the coach’s mission. In my opinion, there are three main pillarson which the structure should be built:firstly, the coach should be a good teacherwith the ability to communicate ideas;secondly, the coach needs to be a goodstrategist in terms of preparing and thendirecting team play; and thirdly, the coachneeds to be strong enough in psychologyto be able to direct and motivate a groupof human beings. I think these requisitesapply from the bottom to the top of thecoaching tree. So I’d say that, in Spain, we are on the right track for continuouslyimproving our coaching methods. But a coach’s education never stops.

You can always improve in physical, tactical or technical methods as well asin psychology, methodology and teamdirection. That means that there cannever be enough retraining courses because there’s a constant demand forthem. A prime example was theresponse to an international courseorganised in Madrid in June.”

8 • How would you assess playerdevelopment in Spain?“There’s a lot of good work being donebut a bottleneck has built up, especiallyin a second division which has becomeresults-orientated and where levels ofpatience have declined as a conse-quence. Players are imported becausenot many people are prepared to takerisks with home-grown players, eventhough, if treated in the right way, theycould very often become better than theplayers who are blocking their progress.If youngsters aren’t given a chance to cut their teeth in the second division, it’svery difficult for a premier club to take a chance with them. At our club, resultsare important. So development work isusually done by clubs lower down thescale who need to produce players theycan then transfer. But there’s no doubtthat we should now be giving priority to the development of players for thefuture health of futsal.”

9 • What are the training parametersat your club?“Training is the ‘sine qua non’ for devel-opment and performance. Planning,preparing, conducting and evaluatingtraining sessions is crucial. We base our

schedule on a five-week pre-season with ten sessions per week in the firstthree and eight in the other two. Duringthe league, we have seven sessions plusgames, tailoring it down to six and thenfive as we go into the play-off periods at the end of the season. In all cases, theaim is to build the closest possible rela-tionship between training and match-play.As for the content, there is continualdebate about the right balance betweendiscipline and freedom of expression. I don’t think technicians will ever reachunanimity, so this boils down to the phi-losophy of each individual coach. Differ-ent trends are detectable at internationaltournaments and you have to weigh up a lot of factors in order to decide exactlyhow open or closed you think your strat-egy should be. You need to be equippedto find the correct responses to situationswhere fatigue sets in, where the team is affected by a succession of errors…you need to detect the appropriate timesfor being more creative and for takinggreater risks and the times when youneed to rely on a solid collective system.”

10 • What can be done to promote futsal still further? Do you think thenew four-team finals in the UEFA FutsalCup are a step in the right direction?“Any change is a risk. But changes stemfrom a desire to improve. So I’m con-vinced that the new format will help thecompetition to gain the status it deserves.Going further afield, I also think that gaining the status of an Olympic sportwould help futsal to earn greater world-wide recognition. I think this should be the immediate objective for all of uswho love the sport. At the same time, I’d like to see more of the top outdoorclubs establishing futsal teams, as thiswould also give us a tremendous mediaboost and a great injection of passion for the game and for the clubs involved.”

Spanish club Boomerang Interviú won theirsecond European title last May.

DM

ITRY

KO

RO

TAEV

/PR

ESSP

HO

TOS/

GET

TY I

MA

GES

AP

HO

TO S

PAIN

/LN

FS

JESUS CANDELAS

HAS TURNED HIS TEAM INTO

A TIGHTLY-KNIT UNIT.

6

UEF

A

SOME PLAYERS HAVE EXCEPTIONAL BALL SKILLS. SOME HAVE A DEVASTATING

CHANGE OF PACE. OTHERS HAVE EXPLOSIVE SHOOTING POWER. AND THEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO

HAVE PHYSICAL PRESENCE, PERSONALITY AND MAGNETISM. KONSTANTIN EREMENKO HAD IT ALL.

HE ACQUIRED SUPERSTAR STATUS AS A DOMINANT FORCE WHEN RUSSIA REACHED THE FINAL OF UEFA’S

INAUGURAL EUROPEAN FUTSAL TOURNAMENT IN 1996 AND HAMMERED IN THE WINNING

PENALTY WHEN HIS COUNTRY EXACTED SPORTING REVENGE ON SPAIN IN THE FIRST FULLY FLEDGED

EUROPEAN FUTSAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1999. SINCE HANGING UP HIS BOOTS, EREMENKO HAS

REMAINED IN THE GAME, PLAYING AN IMPORTANT ROLE FOR REGULAR UEFA FUTSAL CUP FINALISTS,

MTK DINAMO MOSCOW – NOT AS A TECHNICIAN BUT AS

THE SUPERSTARPRESIDENT

UEF

A

How has futsal changed since your retirement?“If we talk about club football, it hasbecome more organised, more struc-tured. Management is at a totally differ-ent level and a lot of money is beinginvested in infrastructure. Clubs don’t

just have a first team now – there’s also a reserve side and an academy. If we talk about the game itself, futsal has become more dynamic and inter-esting to watch. In some facets, like setpieces, it has some a long way forwardcompared with when I was a player.”

One of the interesting topics is that you were a genuine starwithin Russian and internationalfutsal. Some people shy awayfrom a ‘star system’, preferring toemphasise the collective virtuesof the game. But is it legitimate to create ‘stars’ in order to makefutsal more popular?“This is important. Not just for a club,but for the sport as a whole. Peopleoften face a dilemma – not knowingwhether to find a star within the clubor to recruit one from elsewhere. In any case, a lot of work needs to bedone on a potential star player. Heneeds promotion and a certain imageand that image needs to becomeassociated not only with his club, butalso with futsal as a whole. This kind of promotion is perfectly normal and,in my opinion, desirable. If we talkabout today’s Dinamo, we have asuperstar team, but there’s no singleindividual to stand in the spotlight.Most of the players are stars and it’shard to single out one as bigger thanthe rest. If we had such a player, wewould undoubtedly spend a lot of timeand effort promoting him.”

KONSTANTIN EREMENKO,

EUROPEAN FUTSAL CHAMPION

WITH RUSSIA IN 1999.

In 2001, Eremenko took part in the final round of the European Championship staged in his country.

7

KO

RO

TAEV

/PR

ESSP

HO

TOS/

GET

TY I

MA

GES

KO

RO

TAEV

/PR

ESSP

HO

TOS/

GET

TY I

MA

GES

In terms of promotion, what’s your opinion of the format of UEFA’s futsal competitions?“I don’t think it would be right for meto discuss national team competitions.But at club level there should bechanges – logical, well-explained, well-debated changes. That’s what we have been working on. A year ago wewere proposing that UEFA Futsal Cupmatches should be played on a home-and-away basis to boost for the popu-larity of futsal and the clubs. The situa-tion before that was paradoxical – aclub could win the UEFA title withoutplaying a single game in front of itsown fans! UEFA adopted the changeand the two most recent competitionshave been played with a different format. Next season will see anothernew system, with a final four. Thismeans we will have to do our best tohost either a semi-final or the finalgroup in Russia. Whoever stages thetournament will obviously have home

advantage. So I can foresee furtherchanges in the not-too-distant future, as I’m not sure how much the new situation suits Russia, Spain or Italy, for example. Personally, I would favoura format whereby, after the qualifyinground, 16 teams would play the classicOlympic system on a home-and-awaybasis. I think that this kind of systemwould be a massive boost for futsalacross Europe.”

What are your priorities in yourrole as club president?“Dinamo has been in existence for fouryears and is functioning under a set ofrules which I laid down when the clubwas founded. The most important thingis that the club is separated into twoparts. The first is club administration, for which the general manager andexecutive manager are responsible. The second part is the team, which isunder the responsibility of one of thevice-presidents along with the head

coach. The two sides cross only whensolving logistical questions like flights,preparation for games and so on. The coaches cannot intervene in thework of the administration and viceversa. For example, I personally willnever mess with coaching work andgive advice on tactics or squad selec-tion. Over these four years we’ve builta team. But we don’t intend to stopthere. We will keep working. The priori-ties have changed now, though. Today,I devote a lot of time to public rela-tions, work with media. This shouldattract more fans on to the stands andmore boys into futsal. Another impor-tant priority is youth futsal, the creationof our own academy, along with theorganisation of youth tournaments andtaking part in them.”

What do you demand fromcoaches? Results or the develop-ment of players?“There are no long-term results withoutthe development of players. In Russia,there are a lot of ambitious club presi-dents, coaches and players who wantto prove they’re at least not worse thanus. That’s why, when we invite a newcoach to join us, we give him the chal-

lenge of repeating the successes theclub has already had and that of help-ing us to reach new heights. This auto-matically means the players will haveto do better. There’s no other way.Those who don’t develop will never getany results. That’s a law of the game.”

DINAMO MOSCOW – WITH

EREMENKO AS PRESIDENT –

PLAYED IN THE LAST TWO FINALS

OF THE UEFA FUTSAL CUP.

Alexander Shibaev, coach of Dinamo Moscow,led his team to two European finals in a row.

8

VER

DY/

AFP

GETTING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD

IT IS NO SECRET THAT THE FUTSAL MAP OF EUROPE DIFFERS SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE

GEOGRAPHY OF THE OUTDOOR GAME. SLOWLY BUT SURELY, THE PATTERN IS CHANGING, WITH ‘MAJOR

POWERS’ IN 11-A-SIDE FOOTBALL MAKING DETERMINED EFFORTS TO JUMP ABOARD THE

FAST-MOVING FUTSAL EXPRESS. ENGLAND, FRANCE AND GERMANY ARE PRIME EXAMPLES. ALL THREE

ARE ENGAGED IN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND THE FOLLOWING LINES ILLUSTRATE, FROM VERY

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, HOW THEY ARE SETTING ABOUT GETTING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD.

Football fans with a good memory will probably remember seeing Henri Emile on the French bench alongside Aimé Jacquet when Les Bleus won the 1998 WorldCup or as assistant to Roger Lemerre when France completed a double by takingthe European crown in Rotterdam in 2000. When Raymond Domenech took thereins in the wake of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he preferred to form a new back-upteam. The French Federation promptly asked Henri Emile to take charge of futsaland beach soccer. Henri, being Henri, rolled up his sleeves and accepted the challenge with gusto, even enrolling Zinédine Zidane in his programme aimed at making people aware of the relevance of futsal in the modern game.

The story has its relevance. France is one of a group of major powers in the outdoor game that has remained near the back of the starting grid in futsal. That is why it’s interesting to hear Henri talking about the status of

FUTSAL IN FRANCE

The organisational structure of futsal is different in each league, with activi-ties scheduled over the calendar year,over the winter season or totally freely.Some regions have a regional cham-pionship, while others have champi-onships for individual départements(administrative districts).

Running in parallel, there is a region-ally organised cup competition forclubs, which finishes at Easter with afinal phase involving eight teams. The winner of this cup is then enteredby the FFF for the UEFA Futsal Cup.

For the last two seasons, the FFF has been implementing a futsal devel-opment plan via its Central FutsalCommittee and the National TechnicalDepartment (DTN). Each league now has a technical contact point (in principle the Regional TechnicalCentre or the Departmental TechnicalCentre) responsible for joint coor-dination of technical activity related to futsal alongside an administrative contact point connected with theRegional Committee.

A plan of action for each league hasbeen put in place for the next fouryears, following a seminar to informthe different coordinators about ouraims and objectives. At the same time,close contacts have been established

In France, futsal comes under the heading of “diversified football”, standingalongside neighbourhood football, works football, recreational football and nowbeach soccer.

HENRI EMILE

Before getting involved in futsal, Henri Emile worked for a long time with the French national team (here with Marcel Desailly at EURO 2004). FIFE

/AFP

/GET

TY I

MA

GES

9

KO

RO

TAEV

/P

RES

SPH

OTO

S/G

ETTY

IM

AG

ES

The German FA’s determined efforts to develop futsal include research stud-ies aimed at providing persuasive datafor youth development projects. Onesuch study – or, rather, two – con-ducted by Christopher Heim andUlrich Frick from the Institute of SportsScience at the University of Frankfurtdemonstrates the immediate andlonger-term benefits of using a futsalball for indoor soccer. This is an extractof their findings – and any reader whowishes to have more detailed informa-tion is more than welcome to contactUEFA’s football development division.

For the first research project (into theimmediate effects of switching to a futsal ball) a cross-sectional study wasdesigned with 410 fifth-grade pupils(10-12 age bracket). Participants’ tech-nical football skills were assessed in isolated trials and during play usingquantitative video analysis. Both the trials and the video-taped tournamentswere performed with a futsal ball aswell as a normal football or a felt ball.Additionally, after the tournaments,pupils were asked to complete a ques-tionnaire based on 19 football-relateditems in the form of statements relating

to four categories (fear of the ball,enjoyment, involvement in the game,quality of play).

The results indicated that isolated tech-nical elements can be performed signif-icantly faster with a futsal ball than witha football or a felt ball. Video analysis ofmatches with the different balls showedthat the number of ball contacts andthe number of ‘positive’ actions signifi-cantly increased for each player whenusing the futsal ball compared withplaying with the other balls. The ques-tionnaire also indicated that pupils aresignificantly less afraid of hurting them-selves when playing with a futsal ball.

The conclusion of this study was thatthe quality of play among beginners can be greatly enhanced when using a futsal ball instead of a football forindoor soccer.

The longer-term effects were analysedin a second project. Over a period of two years, Christopher Heim andUlrich Frick conducted a longitudinalstudy with 64 fifth-grade pupils (onceagain, in the 10-12 age bracket) inthree different classes. Identical six-week teaching units were performedwith each of the classes and each classwas instructed with a different ball –futsal, football or felt ball. Participants’technical skills were tested in isolatedtrials (such as controlling a bouncingball that drops from a certain heightwith a reproducible velocity) and duringplay using a quantitative video analysis.Every action – for example, passes,shots at goal and so on – was countedfor each player and coded as ‘positive’or ‘negative’. For comparative purposes,this was done before and after theteaching units. All classes performedthe isolated trials with all three balls; the tournaments before and after theteaching units were played with eachtype of ball used during the units. Additionally, to attain reference values,each class played a second tourna-ment with a football before and afterthe teaching units.

A DIFFERENT BALL GAME

between instructors and schoolteacherswith regard to the provision of retrain-ing. Activities are also encouraged dur-ing the school holidays.

In the course of the national trainingcourses (coaching diploma or retrainingcourses), a presentation followed by a

demonstration carried out by two teams in the Paris region is made to the trainees.

For the start of the next school year, a“training the trainers” course will be putin place, as will training courses for fut-sal referees within the various leagues.

VOG

EL/B

ON

GA

RTS

/GET

TY I

MA

GES

A GERMAN STUDY HAS SHOWN

ALL THE ADVANTAGES OF USING

A SPECIAL BALL FOR FUTSAL.

10

GET

TY I

MA

GES

Evaluations showed significantincreases in the number of ball con-tacts each player had during play,while a comparison of the actionscoded as ‘positive’ showed significantdifferences in favour of the class that trained with a futsal ball. Similarresults emerged from the isolated

GET

TY I

MA

GES

First international outing for England: the ‘KL Fives’ in Kuala Lumpur in 2003.

tactical awareness. So we’ve stepped upour search for futsal players and, apartfrom the scouting we do ourselves, wehave approached about 250 clubs andcommunities asking them not to be shyabout recommending players.

In the meantime, we had set up a project that we called the F30 pro-gramme. It was a policy of selectingwhat you might call an elite group of 30 players and working hard on devel-oping them. It’s actually more flexiblethan it sounds because the squad of 30 is in continuous movement, withsmall numbers of newcomers beinginjected into the group while othersdrop out. It’s interesting to bring in, say, four or five new players and seehow they compare with the ones whoare already there. The F30 squad gettogether for a full day every month atour national training centre in Lilleshall,where we work single-mindedly ontechnical and tactical improvement. Wealso have to work on mental strength.For example, we had to recover from a 24-1 defeat against Portugal, and wehave to learn how to handle certain situations – such as being 4-1 up after a fantastic first half against Cyprus.

But the future of English futsal isn’t onlyabout building a national team. We haveto look at structures – we’re currentlylooking at a new franchise-driven leaguethat could be in place by 2008, forexample – and, more importantly, wehave to raise the profile of futsal in ourcountry. It might be a slight exaggerationbut, basically, people aren’t aware of futsal as a brand and, if you talk about‘five-a-side’ people tend to think of it as a ‘pub sport’. So there is long-termwork to be done on changing the imageof the game and to give futsal a recog-nisable ‘brand identity’. Our aim (and it’s a reachable objective) is to makefutsal the fastest-growing indoor sport in our country – and to start gettingresults! We haven’t quite found the winning formula yet but we’re on ourway and we’re thoroughly enjoying a great adventure.”

tests of football skills, with significantincreases for the class training exclu-sively with a futsal ball. Once again, theconclusion of Christopher and Ulrichwas that “football tuition in schoolsshould be performed with a futsal ballinstead of a football or felt ball whenfootball is played indoors”.

ENGLAND ARE STILL ONE

OF THE NEWCOMERS TO EUROPEAN

FUTSAL COMPETITIONS.

“It was our chairman, Geoffrey Thomp-son, who, because of his roles at UEFA,was keen to put England on the futsalmap,” he recalls. “So I was asked totake a team to the ‘KL Fives’ in KualaLumpur in 2003. I started watching fut-sal and I was sold on it within minutes.As a national team, we were dormantfor a while – until the qualifiers for the2005 European championship – but Irealised that the first step was to travel,to observe and to learn. In that respect, I was very fortunate to have such totalsupport from The FA and from so many

colleagues, like Orlando Duarte, JavierLozano and Vic Hermans. I saw about40 national teams playing or training,which was a great learning experience.

The next step was to build a nationalteam. That wasn’t easy because,although there are a lot of club sidesand about four million people playingsmall-sided football, we estimated that 40% of our futsal players were of foreign origin, mostly from EasternEurope. In general terms, English players were short of technical and

At 21, Graeme Dell was the youngest person ever to be awarded the FA’s fullcoaching licence. He has been involved with England and Great Britain studentteams since 1991 and has taken teams to eight University Games. Two yearsago, when he was also named head coach of the England futsal team, he wasaware that there would be no overnight miracles. At the time of writing, hisnational team is still waiting for a first taste of victory, but the project is under way.Graeme explains how the long trail towards the top is being negotiated by

THE PATIENT ENGLISH

11

FER

REI

RA

CO

NST

RU

ÇÕES

SA

The Portuguese team will play the final round at home.

UEF

A

THELAST WORD

THE MULTI-PURPOSE

GONDOMAR PAVILION WILL BE READY

FOR THE FINAL ROUND IN 2007.

2 0 0 6

October 2Draw for the qualifying competition for the European Futsal Championship (Nyon)

October 10 – 16UEFA Futsal Cup – Main Round

October 31Draw for the Futsal Cup Elite Round

December 4 – 10 UEFA Futsal Cup – Elite Round

2 0 0 7

January 15 – 21 European Futsal Championship –Preliminary Round

February 18 – 25 European Futsal Championship –Main Round

A G E N D A

THE FUTSAL COMPETITIONS THIS AUTUMN

2007 European Futsal Championship:Portugal is the host nation for nextyear’s final round, for which thevenue will be the splendid PavilhãoMultiusos (multi-purpose pavilion)in the Porto suburb of Gondomar.Designed by Portuguese architectÁlvaro Siza Vieira, this 3,800-seatarena, which is still under construc-tion but due for completion inDecember 2006, will offer theteams, media, partners and specta-tors superb facilities and workingconditions.

Thirty-six countries have entered the competition, including two newcomers: Malta and Turkey. Thedraw for the qualifying round will be made in Nyon on 2 October andwill be broadcast live on www.uefa.com beginning at 13.30.

2009 European Futsal Championship:The bidding procedure for the finalround in November 2009 got underway this summer. Five associationshave already expressed an interest in hosting the tournament, which will feature 12 teams for the firsttime: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

The UEFA Executive Committee is set to decide on the host nationnext spring.

2006/07 UEFA Futsal Cup: The current edition of this club competition kicked off in Septemberwith the preliminary round. Apartfrom introducing a totally new for-mat, under which a two-leg final isreplaced by a “final four”, UEFA hasalso produced a manual for the asso-ciations hosting Futsal Cup tourna-ments as a way of helping them toimprove the organisation of theseevents. The manual has been published onuefa.com (seehttp://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/445344.pdf) and is only available in English, which is required for theorganisation of any European futsalcompetition.

UEFARoute de Genève 46CH-1260 NyonSwitzerlandPhone +41 848 00 27 27Fax +41 22 707 27 34uefa.com

Union des associationseuropéennes de football