UEFA Futsal Manager Laurent Morel discusses the state of the game in the United Kingdom

United States Youth Futsal and the Futsal World newsletter would like to thank Futsal Focus for posting an interview with Laurent Morel, futsal manager for UEFA.

Morel discusses the state of futsal in the United Kingdom, whose progress parallels as well as differs from that in North America, as discussed in this month's newsletter.

If you're not familiar Futsal Focus, it's Facebook page devoted to the game in England and Ireland. You can "Like" the page at http://www.facebook.com/FutsalF?ref=ts&fref=ts and stay up to date with developments there.

Likewise, we welcome Futsal Focus readers to join us for discussions about United States Youth Futsal, the U.S. National Futsal Team and the state of the game in North America on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/usyouthfutsal?ref=ts&fref=ts, or our blog, http://usyouthfutsal.blogspot.com

The discussion with Laurent Morel, UEFA's futsal manager, appeared on Sept. 30. It is edited for newsletter style and to make for smooth reading for most North American readers. For example, the word "soccer" is used instead of "football" and traditional English spellings are replaced by those used by the majority of Americans and Canadians.

Laurent Morel, manages UEFA futsal competitions

By Laurent Morel

In Europe, the growth of futsal has been quite tremendous in the last decade. In 1998, 25 futsal national teams were entering the very first UEFA competition following a successful invitational Futsal EURO in Spain in early 1996. Now we are dealing with 45 national teams, meaning the number of participants has doubled in 16 years

This is considerable, as you can imagine that before establishing a futsal national team, some passionate people need to launch a national competition through their own football associations (sometimes even without). This involves manpower, budgets, development strategies and last but not least, hundreds of players, all boosted by the emotion that this game brings.

If the growth has been dramatic in participation, the global expansion including further development of awareness and recognition of the game has still been affected by various factors like the difficult economic environment or the rise of activity in every football sector -- licensing programs, women’s and youth football, refereeing and coaching education, new technical centers, etc.

These factors have prevented a more structured expansion and drive to meet the needs of the growing demand for futsal.

In the United Kingdom, there was one big challenge to launching futsal: tradition. Compared to the century-old outdoor game, and the traditional English 5-a-side game, a sport like futsal was surely a lightweight and the crowded indoor sports’ marketplace did not help organizers overcome all the obstacles

Still, some English and Irish associations, facing a lack of results in youth international soccer competitions, began to ask the ultimate question about how to develop winning generations of players. Of course, the answer rests in multiple factors that influence better performance at the youth level. 

At the first stage of research some development officers decided to use the simplest tool: observation. I would like to take you through the thinking that soccer experts may have today, establishing a clear link between futsal and football that is key to convincing the “big brother" (soccer) that futsal is an absolute and vital necessity for its future.

Therefore, for the soccer educators who are on a quest for fresh and new ideas for player development, the simplest analysis could be the following: Who are the winning teams? Who are the most skilled players? How are these players developed? 

If you asked 100 people the same question “who are the best soccer players in the world?”, the majority would surely reply “Brazilians”!! My father enjoyed the skills and tricks used by Pelé, I discovered top football watching Zico, Socrates, Falcão and Co in 1982, and I recall the delight of watching Bebeto, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Robinho. And my son will surely talk about Neymar in the near future … if not already!

Why is this? What makes them technically superior? Try to think further about it … futsal.

Next question could be: Who are the “European styled Brazilian” players? If you know a bit about soccer and have played against teams from the Balkans, you know that the former Yugoslavia is a real pool of talented players. 

As a Swiss citizen, I know exactly why the Swiss soccer national team has made a big step forward technically, but tradition was our main drawback. Try to have a look at the line-up of the Swiss national team now with key players such as Xhaka, Shaquiri, Behrami, plus Dzemaili and Gavranovic who have brought added value to the international performance, and this gives you a clue how Switzerland is building-up a new face to its “performing” national teams (U-17 World Champions in 2009, U-21 Euro finalist in 2011).

Last question: Who is ruling the soccer world today? No discussion – Spain; with an impressive collection of titles and trophies on every major adult event (club and national team) and youth level. The successful era also found its root due to a long-term strategy to build a brand new philosophy of the game. 

After 20 years of “total football," FC Barcelona has started to show the world that soccer is all about skills, pace, pressing and ball possession. Forget about tall, strong and physical players, the time has come to play and think fast.

So far, I have not brought any new factors, only questions. Now let’s try to look at the factors and you will realize that futsal is the key factor, joining all the above-mentioned factors. 

Brazilian kids playing futsal at school (Photo by Mike Woodfin).

In Brazil, kids are playing nearly before they know how to walk! In favelas, urban areas, tropical forests, everywhere kids are playing the whole day, probably at the detriment of their education, but it is sport at least. And when these kids integrate into a football club, they will start in the futsal academy of the clubs. 

The reason is more to do with access than educational. A full-size football pitch in Brazil is pure luxury, and access is reserved to the elite footballers. So kids play indoor futsal and will not see a grass field before they are 12. However, knowing that a futsal ball offers nearly 30 percent more ball contact than outdoor soccer, you can figure out how many more ball touches a Brazilian teenager will have had during his or her early soccer career. Probably hundreds of thousands more …

Further, how many more dribbles, one-on-ones, decision making, pressing exits, passes will he or she have made?

Back to Europe and the Balkans ... what is the most popular game they play in Croatia, in Serbia, in Albania, in Bosnia-Herzegovina etc.? It’s futsal. Futsal is mostly outdoor in those places, but they also have had indoor leagues for decades and use futsal balls. 

Generally, players start the game on a recreational level, then move to soccer when they look for competitive sport (There is no established youth competitive futsal in the Balkans), and generally players go back to futsal when they are 35 and have fun for five to 10 years more.

Finally, let's look at Spain. Javier Lozano, former coach of the Spanish futsal national team, was the who established the idea of a technical center, using a state-of-the-art educational tool that is also a platform for national teams.

Las Rozas (Royal Spanish Football Federation's Football City in Las Rozas, an area of Madrid) was born, thanks to the input of Angel Maria Villar, president of the Spanish soccer ruling body. Those who took the risk of creating the technical center can be proud of themselves because the “Museum” in Las Rozas will soon be too small to display all their recent trophies! Futsal is played at school in Spain, and there are leagues for all ages for both men and women and there has never been an argument to say what we have heard for so many years in the UK, that futsal was a competitor to soccer. 

On the contrary, it is the perfect complement to the outdoor game. The amount of registered futsal players and soccer players is continuously growing in Spain. The Spanish FA benefits from more people playing now than if futsal did not exist.

England's FA has established a national league and  national team, as well as various competitions

On reflection, I guess these are the only few factors that some UK development officers are trying to bring to the debate, as I said tradition and conservatism aren't helping to advance the argument that futsal is probably the best tool to develop football skills, but I see some positive moves from the FA in recent years -- development of a national league, national team and futsal modules integrated into youth coach education programs.

Similarly, progress has been made by the Scottish FA (futsal development officer appointed), at the Welsh FA (league and national team created), at the FA in Ireland (a fantastic development plan implemented in 2005, with futsal all across the country, a national league, a national team, the game at universities, etc. 

However the economic crisis has slowed down futsal's development a bit in recent years. In Northern Ireland, thanks to the great input from Stephen McGettigan, things are taking shape. Should futsal develop further, there are surely big challenges with finding indoor facilities, and setting-up a local or regional league as a start, but the Irish FA, which has already developed an annual girls' competition, could also see an interest in developing further futsal activity in the framework of a youth soccer development plan.

In short, futsal in the UK is moving from the setting-up phase to the establishing phase. It means that it will never go back again, but can only move forward. It is time to further convince politicians of local authorities and soccer governing bodies to give futsal its due as a tool for soccer, but also as a sport that's open to all (youth, women, men and seniors) from recreational to competitive levels.

Futsal has the potential to be as big as basketball in the next 20 years, given a chance.

And, we wish good luck to all the futsal pioneers in Northern Ireland.

Finally, from UEFA’s point of view, we will assist all the FAs to set up futsal once strategic decisions have been made. We may visit the associations to present the game of futsal in general, as well as UEFA futsal activities and potential assistance they need.

After our "Futsal Day" was so successful when held in Munich last May, we will again be organizing the event in London on the eve of the UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium. The FA has already proposed its assistance for this project, which will further link futsal to football in the heart of the Champions League Festival next May in London.

We had 25,000 visitors in Munich and we hope to have at least that number, if not more, to further promote the game to all soccer and futsal fans. The whole of the UK is invited.

I wish futsal to have a great future in the cradle of soccer!