width, shirt pulling and pushing can happen far less. With five
foul team limits per half and four second maximum kick-ins,
there isn’t much time to abuse the referee or try and deceive
them. The game rewards skill over anything else.
Perfectly balanced.
So then, it’s just indoor soccer or 5-a-side, right?
Well, not really. To get all of these benefits, futsal is a finely
balanced game with 4-a-side outfield plus a goalkeeper. The
properties of the wooden or modern court, out lines and the
low bounce smaller futsal ball are what it gives it these unique
benefits.
To get the most from futsal, it must be kept genuine, as it’s own
sport. Sure, we could play with a bigger ball, bigger space, and
More fun. Being one pass or one
add a few more players per team. But then we would have footrun away from the ball means
ball. The unique benefits that futsal brings, simply comes from
you’re always involved. It makes
being futsal.
playing football at left back when
And in countries like Spain where it’s a sport in it’s own right,
the play is all down the right wing the top U14 players don’t play for football. They play to be the
seem like a spectator sport.
best futsal players they can be.
More demands. Everybody must
And then there is every chance they could become professional
attack and defend in futsal. In three futsal, or football, players in the future.
second you can go from being the So even if it’s one session per week, play futsal and you, or your
last man back, to the highest man
kids, will love it.
forward. You are put under new
demands, in this higher intensity,
all the time.
Less of the bad stuff. When there
is a referee on each side of the
court and a maximum of 20 metres
GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL
www.grf-football.co.uk
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