Features

Futsal is the official version of 5-a-side football, sanctioned by FIFA, UEFA and the FA. 

It's a very polite sport

It is a faster game than traditional 5-a-side and the fundamental difference is the ball, which is a smaller low-bounce version.

Players such as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Robinho all played futsal in their youth and this can be seen by their superior technical abilities and movement on the pitch.

I came across futsal when I was doing research for a 5-a-side competition I run and since then I have never looked back. 

I decided to set up and run a team at the University of Teesside and got a lot of interest from students: attracting over 70 people to our first session! 

Since October we have played 3 matches in England and played in a tournament in the Czech Republic, competing against professional futsal teams!

The England team is made up of players from the national game (non-league football) and only train in futsal once a month.

This is a severe disadvantage to other countries in Europe such as Russia, Spain, Portugal and Belgium:  all of which have professional futsal leagues and they take players from there. 

The strongest league is arguably the Division de Honor in Spain and this was reflected in Chinese Taipei 2004 when Spain reclaimed the FIFA Futsal World Cup, beating Italy 2-1 in the final.

The FA Futsal Cup is the early stages of England having a national league and you can enter a team into the Teesside qualifying league for your chance to go through to the FA Futsal Cup Finals 2006 and even the chance to get into the UEFA Futsal Cup or the England team!

For more information on futsal or to enter a team into the Teesside qualifying league go to the 'see also' section in the right hand side of the page.