Youngsters in Herefordshire will soon be given the chance to try out Futsal for the first time thanks to funding from The Football Association (The FA). Herefordshire Football Association have received £3000 from the Football Foundation to start up two U12 futsal leagues for boys and girls.

In June, The FA made £300,000 available to County Football Associations, FA-affiliated clubs, youth and adult football leagues who wished to develop either one or two new Futsal leagues, as they ramped up efforts to encourage more people to play the sport in England.

The scheme, which is delivered by the Football Foundation, awarded grants of £1,500 to applicants per league created, with money being used towards associated costs of facility hire, equipment, referees and FA-affiliated courses.

Futsal is the UEFA and FIFA recognised format of five- a- side football and is played on a firm indoor pitch, with Hockey sized goals. It is played to lines rather than walls or boards and the ball differs in being slightly smaller and with a reduced bounce.

Taken together these differences lead to a game that is fast, skilful and tactical. For these reasons Futsal is not only a useful development experience for young footballers, but an exciting and attractive game in its own right.

A number of football’s biggest names credit Futsal as playing a significant role in their professional football development, with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi Hernandez and Ronaldinho having all played the sport in their younger years.

Joe Mathias, Herefordshire FA Football Development Officer, said: “We submitted an application to run two brand new U12 futsal leagues, catering for boys and girls and were delighted to receive support from the Football Foundation on these. The leagues will be run in partnership with Futsal Futures, making use of their significant expertise in futsal and tournament coordination.

This is an exciting time for futsal and we have every confidence this will mark the start of a new period for futsal participation in Herefordshire, with the intention to offer leagues for more age groups in the future.”

The new futsal leagues will be starting up this Autumn and U12 boys and girls teams are encouraged to register their interest in participating.
Register your team!

As part of our preparations for the new league, Herefordshire FA are running a futsal referees’ course on the 26^th October. Thanks to the funding received from Football Foundation, the course is heavily discounted and places can be booked for just £36.00. This will be available for booking from Monday 30th September.

For more information on the new Herefordshire FA Futsal League please contact:

Joe Mathias Joe.Mathias@HerefordshireFA.com
Dan Chance Dan.Chance@HerefordshireFA.com