Shropshire FA is currently working in partnership with the Shropshire Junior Football League in delivering a winter Futsal programme for U8, U9 and U10 junior teams.
The first match was played on Sunday 4th January at Shrewsbury Sports Village and matches will take place every Sunday until Sunday 1st March.
Prior to the commencement of this programme, 48 team managers in the League attended a ‘Beginners to Futsal’ course, The team managers then took what they had learnt and put it into practise during their team training sessions prior to the winter Futsal programme starting.
30 teams have committed to the programme and will take part in the series of friendly matches, refereed by 15 newly qualified Futsal referees.
Shropshire is one of the leading counties in regards to Futsal; the county holds annual men’s and women’s Futsal tournaments, junior club one off tournaments and one off school tournaments.
2008 saw increased interest in the game and school programmes are now being delivered within each School Sports Partnership with Shropshire FA planning to hold District School Futsal Cups in March culminating a County Schools Finals day. The real breakthrough though came when the Shropshire Junior League expressed an interest in playing Futsal.
Andy Taylor, Shropshire FA Football Development Officer said:
“Many leagues stop playing mini soccer during the winter months and even if they do have fixtures arranged they often get cancelled due to poor weather conditions. This winter Futsal programme has meant that all players, coaches and spectators are indoors and teams are guaranteed to be playing week in week out.
The development of Futsal within the county has been great, but to see the real benefit of the game the younger age groups need to be playing it so that the skills associated can be instilled at a younger age. The coaches have really taken this on board and I know that teams now transfer the skills taught in Futsal into their mini soccer matches.’
Shropshire FA hopes to continue this programme next year in partnership with the Shropshire Junior Football League, plans are being made to extend this programme to all age groups.