FUTSAL WEEKLY

Courtesy of rpphotos

IT’S AL-WRIGHT: GABRIELLE TALKS ABOUT HER EXPERIENCES IN THE GAME,ABOUT WHERE SHE SEES IT GOING AND THE STATE OF THE NATIONAL SIDE

The England Futsal side have improved a lot over the last few years, but Gabrielle believes that the team still has a long way to go if it wants to rival the top sides, even though they are closing in on the European Championship Finals in 2016 in the city of Belgrade, Serbia

When you were a young-ster, you probably wanted to be a sportsman or wom-an. Seeing the stars on the biggest stage seduces many a young mind and it’s only natural that those same youngsters want to follow in the footsteps of their idols.

In that respect, Gabrielle Wright was no different.

But the sport that cap-tured her imagination was not quite so common.

“I love futsal. It’s some-thing I’ve always been inter-ested in. I first started to get in to futsal when searching for “Groundmoves” on youtube and really it’s just snowballed from there”.

Like many of us, Gabrielle never made it as a profes-sional futsal player... but she did the next best thing, which is now what she does as a futsal coach and futsal referee.

“It’s probably not the most obvious career choice but I am very fortunate to have a job in an industry that I love which, to be honest, probably makes it unique.

“About 90% of the people I know and meet in futsal are either volunteers or only work part time so, like I say, I’m very lucky to have a full time career in the sport.”

Gabrielle first started out professionally in futsal with the Northamptonshire F.A in 2012 and also used to help coordinate the F.A Futsal Fives league in Ket-tering.

She is currently a Futsal level 2 coach as well as a futsal level 5 referee, al-though it wasn’t a straight-forward process… the “parent” sport football also plays a big part, “It’s taken me 3 years to get to where I am now.

“You have to have achieved a certain stand-ard in football before you can get your futsal specific badges,” she says.

But it is getting easier apparently, “There are more and more futsal courses being delivered across the country so the process of getting qualified will be-come easier and easier. It’s best if you’re connected with a club so you can prac-tise what you learn on the courses before your exams!”

Bearing in mind that football and futsal are two rather similar sports in their roots, it would be understandable to ask why Gabrielle isn’t involved in the more mainstream of the

two. But, as she explains, there

are certain reasons behind her choice, “I do find it a lot more accessible than foot-ball. For example, my FA Futsal Level 2 qualification was delivered by the Eng-land Futsal Manager.

“You wouldn’t get the equivalent of that in foot-ball. I’m also a futsal referee and it’s much easier to get futsal fixtures than football.”

Gabrielle admits that football and futsal are in-deed similar, however she is quick to point out that the two are not identical, “The evidence is clear for every-one to see: A player touches the ball 210% more in futsal than football, which is obvi-ously a huge difference and it is therefore understand-able why more and more people are getting involved in futsal as they know they will be so much more part of the play.

“The game is set up to reward skill, flair and crea-tiveness, with laws like the accumulate fouls. If you re-ally love the beautiful game you will love futsal.”

Being a F.A futsal repre-

sentative in the area as well as already having a fair bit of experience in the area, Gabrielle has also recently got involved with the newly formed Warrington Futsal side, who are now in their second year, with the this year being their first in a competitive league, the FA Cheshire 5ves league to be exact and it is an experience that she has so far enjoyed, “I’ve really enjoyed it so far, absolutely. It’s always great to be involved at the start of something new and I know it’s been a goal (excuse the pun) for Ashley to have a futsal squad/league up and running for a while now so it’s great that’s finally the case”.

And, despite the side be-ing so new to futsal, she has been pleasantly surprised with the standard on show.

“Considering they’ve only been playing compet-itive futsal for a matter of weeks they’ve done bril-liantly, especially in the FA Futsal Cup tournament.

“There have been some really positive results across the board so far and I’m sure there will be much more to come. The more

WEEKLY PLAYER PROFILE : FALCAO

trophy. Despite the lack of team success, Falcao still showed off his skills and even ended up as the tournament’s top scorer at the 2004 edition. It wasn’t until 2008 that Falcao and his teammates found them-selves on the top pedestal of international football, with Falcao contributing 15 goals to the cause. The Bra-zilians would go on to win it 4 years later with their star man once again playing a pivotal part.

Falcao has not been con-tent with dominating just the Futsal world and has even ventured in to foot-ball. He signed for Brazilian giants Sao Paolo during the 2005 Copa Libertadores, but it was to be a short lived venture as, despite a few encouraging performanc-es, he struggled to adapt to football at the age of 26 and soon returned back to Futsal.

He would carry on to become the World’s undis-puted star player, going on to win hoards of individual and team trophies.

He still plays now, for Brasil Kirin, and contin-ues to dazzle both players and fans alike with his well known dribbling skills and devastating left foot. Up to date, he has scored an astounding 932 goals in 697 during his career, including a record 339 in 201 for the national side which will arguably never be bettered.He has also become a star on the well known vid-eo sharing site Youtube where millions of viewers from all over the world have watched clips of him displaying his futsal skills as well as many of his fantastic goals.

When it comes to Futsal, there is nobody bigger than Allessandro Rosa Vieira, more commonly known as Falcao. For Gabrielle and many others, he is their idol, which is why we are going to do a short profile on the man himself.

Born on June 8th 1977, Falcao started out by futsal like many other Brazilian football players but, unlike stars such as Ronaldinho, he decided to concentrate on his futsal career. He started out Guaripira but, after impressing in the Regional Championships whilst still a teenager, he was soon snapped up by the prestigious Corinthians side.

He spent 5 years with the side, scoring an extraordi-nary 189 goals in 132 games for the outfit before moving on to GM Chevrolet. Whilst with the club, he earned his 1st call up to the Selecao, the national futsal side. Over the next few years, he moved around the country, playing for several tea,s before moving to Jaragua in 2003, where he would spend 7 years, the longest at a single club.

It was in 2004 that he first hit the heights as the World’s best player as he was crowned FIFA Futsal player of the year for the first. It is an award that he would win a further 3 times in 2006, 2011 and 2012 and is still the player who has won the award the most times.

It is with the Brazilian national side that he is the most well known, but it is interesting to note that at the first two World Cup in which he participated, the Brazilians failed to win the

Photo courtesy of talksport

IT’S AL-WRIGHT: GABRIELLE TALKS ABOUT HER EXPERIENCES IN THE GAME,ABOUT WHERE SHE SEES IT GOING AND THE STATE OF THE NATIONAL SIDE

The England Futsal side have improved a lot over the last few years, but Gabrielle believes that the team still has a long way to go if it wants to rival the top sides, even though they are closing in on the European Championship Finals in 2016 in the city of Belgrade, Serbia

they continue to play and learn about the specific tac-tics the more they’ll evolve to playing real futsal rath-er than 5aside with futsal laws.”

Just like the Warrington futsal side, there are many other across the country and lots of more leagues are beginning to appear.

Futsal is undoubtedly gaining on other main-stream sports, which is something that Gabrielle also points out, “I think it is within grassroots level in the UK, particularly with coaches who are seeing the benefits it can provide their players.

“Of course outside the UK it’s already considered a mainstream sport in some countries and to be honest we are still a way off that target, but if we carry on gaining support in the same way as we are now then it is only a matter of time before we reach that level.”

Indeed, in the rest of world, futsal is already a big part.

In South American coun-tries such as Brazil, it is a sport that a huge amount of youngsters play from a very

early age with players such as Falcao, who is Gabri-elle’s favourite player, being treated as superstars across the nation.

In fact, many Brazil-ians football stars across the years, from Pele and co over 50 years ago and players such as Neymar and Ronaldinho in more recent times, started out by learn-ing their trade on the futsal pitch.

These players did and have honed their extraordi-narily beautiful technique over the years, and these very same skills have seen them be very successful on the football pitch with Brazil leading the way in terms of World Cup wins, of which they have 5.

Gabrielle believes that we should encourage young-sters in this country as well as it could potentially have the same effect with our na-tional football side, which has not been too successful over the years.

“We should definitely be teaching our budding foot-ballers to play futsal more. The weighted ball means that young players can look up when they’re on the ball

because they know it’ll be at their feet and not run-ning away from them as it’s much easier to control.

“That helps them learn about vision at a very young age and allows them to be comfortable on the ball. It’s not rocket science to look at the connection between countries that get their kids to play futsal and where they are ranked in the world at football, so yes, it should be something that the F.A should be looking into.”

For now though, it would be good to see the Futsal side itself improve.

Over the last few years, the side has enjoyed some very encouraging results and Gabrielle believes that there is definitely potential, although we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, “Whilst we are most certainly im-proving, Futsal has been a sport for over 100 years and we are only just starting to understand and play the game, so success for Eng-land looks a lot different to other countries.

“We certainly aren’t going to win the world cup any time soon but if we quali-

fy for the Euro’s, which is looking more and more likely, that’d be fantastic.”

Whilst the men’s game is on the rise, the woman’s game is not enjoying the same hike in popularity, which has not gone unno-ticed by Gabrielle, and it something she would like to see change “There are a lot more local leagues for women to play futsal but at the moment there isn’t the demand across the country to justify the costs of estab-lishing an England National Futsal squad.

“However, there are growing pockets of interest all over so hopefully in a few years we might see a women’s futsal team. Con-tinuing to publicise futsal at local level so this can filter through will help. An injection of monetary funds wouldn’t hurt either I don’t think.”

With Gabrielle only being at the start of her futsal career, she still has a lot planned for the future, “I’d like to continue coaching futsal, but within my job I’d like to organise internation-al competitions between national futsal sides. I also

want to have some more enriching experiences and start some more ventures such as when I hosted the first FA Youth futsal festival for boys and girls aged 9-16. When I first started people asked me “What is futsal??”, now they ask “Where can I play futsal??”, I want to be able to change that original perception even more.”

As has been shown throughout this article, futsal is on the way up, Ga-brielle wants to encourage as many people as possible to jump on the bandwag-on, “Buy yourself a futsal ball. You don’t need to be involved in a team imme-diately if it’s not possible, you can hone your skills yourself by practising in the garden. Contact your local County FA and they will be able to point you in the direction of your near-est futsal team, league or friendly kick about. Just get involved”.

So there you have it. Futsal is the way forward. And, if you don’t where you’ll be in five years, you could always follow in Gabrielle’s footsteps. Think about it.

Courtesy of englandfutsal.com

FUTSAL : NEW TO THEUP AND COMING GAME

Indeed, whilst it roots are very much engrained in football, the two don’t have as many similarities as one would be led to believe, as Liam goes on to explain,“I find that football is a lot faster and played at a far higher pace.

“Also, it concentrates a lot more on intricate skills rather than, shall we say, long ball play. I’ve also found that it is a lot more fun that football, which is something that I didn’t think I would ever say when I first started playing it! The shorter halves mean you just go for it straight from the off right from the first minute.”

Last year, the society had only just formed, meaning that it was generally just a kickabout between people who just wanted to play. But the interest was so high that the society was includ-

ed in the annual varsity competition against the Crewe MMU ( Manchester Metropolitan University ) campus, in which they were one of only 2 sports socie-ties to win for Warrington.

This year, 3 teams have been entered in to a Chesh-ire futsal league, which sees 6 teams play each other twice over several weeks.

All the games take place at the Warrington campus sports hall and Liam has very much enjoyed the whole experience.

“It’s been great so far real-ly. It’s really good to be able to play futsal competitively, and it is a lot more enjoya-ble than traditional sunday league football and every one is so chilled out.

“There’s a wonderful camaraderie between the futsal lads, we are all able to laugh and joke with each other, which means that we

At the Warrington campus of the University of Chester, mainstream sports have shown the way and dominated the sporting cal-endar. The various football and rugby teams have been successful over the years and, unsurprisingly, they tend to gather the most interest. However, they is a new sport on the block, and it is hoping to steal a bit of their thunder.

And that sport is Futsal. It is essentially indoor foot-ball, but it is 5 a side and played with a much smaller ball.

It encourages the players to work on their technique and skills and how to operate in confined spaces. Many of football biggest stars such as Ronaldinho began learning their trade by playing futsal which helped improved their flicks and tricks and, throughout

the world, it is very popular.Not quite so much on

these shores, but that is starting to change.

More futsal clubs are be-ginning to pop up all over and the Warrington Futsal society is no different.

Still young in it’s second year, it has managed to form 3 different teams with over 30 members.

Liam Cornes is the 3rd team’s captain and, like many others, he is very new to the sport.

“I didn’t even know that Futsal was even a sport when I was younger so it was something that I never really played.

“I only started playing it recreationally last year be-fore the competitive com-petition of this year started, so I’m still getting used to it as I’ve always played foot-ball before and the two are quite different.”

play the game in a really good spirit.”

Not only have their been 3 teams in a league this year, the Warrington futsal society was invited to send a team to the FA Futsal Cup qualifiers, which was another great experience for those involved and Liam was once again one of the lucky ones as they took the field against both amateur and professional teams, “It was another great experi-ence for us,” he said, “and it is something I would like to do again.

“The stakes were a lot higher which meant that we were more nervous and wanted to perform even more but we didn’t embarrass ourselves and it was really enlightening to see how good some of the other teams were and to see where we can improve.”

You would perhaps for-give the side if they were to rest on their laurels a bit and just enjoy what has happened up till now. But there is no chance of that, as they are looking to go from strength to strength.

“We have a tour planned for the end of March which will see us go to Spain to play against other Universi-ty sides. But before that, we want to perform to the best of our ability in the league and I am also looking in to setting up some friendlies as well”.

As captain, it is fair to say that Liam has slightly more responsibility than the rest of his team but it is some-thing that he has taken in his stride.

“Being captain has given me great pride and has been a great privilege. I strive to be what I would expect a captain to be.

“The whole opportuni-ty has even made think about potentially pursuing a coaching career in the sport. I have always wanted to coach sport at some level anyway so there is no rea-son why that sport couldn’t be futsal!”

It may have taken longer for the UK to get behind futsal, but it seems that it is finally taking off.

As Liam says “It is such a spectacle to watch and I would be surprised if it didn’t encourage people to start playing it to in this country”.

So watch this space....and find a futsal club near you. The chances are, it’ll be closer than you think.

Liam Cornes (left) in action for the Warrington Campus Futsal 3rd side during one of the many league games he has played a part in this season