The Vikings Futsal Cup is now airing on CTV each Sunday in a time slot between 12:30pm and 4pm.

Tune in and catch all the international Futsal action from the Cup played in Christchurch.

 

Source : Vikings NZ
Published : 8/10/2008

Some 44 teams will kick off the new Junior Futsal Season at the St Jays Recreation centre on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th of October.

Most teams coming from the Elizabeth and Districts Junior Association Clubs such as Tea Tree Gully, St. Augustines, Para Hills, Salisbury United, Para Hills West, Modbury Vista, Ingle farm and others.

The age categories are from Under 7’s right up to Under 16’s.

The first round will commence with the Under 7/8 at 9.00am until 5.30pm with the Under 12’s and on Sunday from 11.00am to 3.00pm ending with the under 16’s.

Most age groups have 7 to 8 teams in each with the Under 16’s having only 4 teams.

Futsal SA are asking all teams to see if you can get a team together within a week or two to make it worthwhile for the existing 4 teams.

For more information please contact Ray Grima the Competition Manager and Futsal SA Develpment Officer on 08-8280 6240 or 0411-636-590

Everyone is welcome to come and have a look at the competition and entry for spectators is FREE.

Source : Football Federation South Australia
Published : 7/10/2008

Recently Tasmania took a 23 team strong contingent to compete in the 2008 Vikings National School Futsal Titles in Dandenong.

This event is run annually and is the biggest school sporting event of its kind in the world with teams competing for their schools in local competitions all around Australia and New Zealand vying for selection for their relevant state teams.

Tasmanian State School teams are selected from the Hobart, Launceston and Burnie school titles which Vikings Futsal Tasmania run every year. Tasmania also competes in the National Club championships every year in January which players are selected via club competitions and trials.

Tasmania had its most successful year ever at National School Titles this year with teams making the finals in a number of age groups and for the first time the Northern Tasmanian teams being extremely competitive also.

Within the past 3 years there has been a rapid increase in Tasmania’s rankings and this year there were notable stand outs at the competition which is a credit to the state’s Futsal Academy program.

Before 2008 Tasmania’s best result was a runners up finish in the 16 Boys in 2007.

Tasmanian Islanders 12 Boys became the first Tasmanian team in history to be crowned National Champions in Futsal or Soccer by clean sweeping their 10 games in the tournament culminating in the final where the team defeated Queensland 5-1 after beating them 4-3 in the group stage. Other results included resounding wins over Victoria, Nth Qld and NNSW.

The national championship winning team comprised of 6 players who completed the Islanders Futsal Academy program, the winning squad was the following- Josh Norton (Captain), Cameron Rogers (VC), Angus Souter, Trey Westbury, Jordan Cairns, Jackson Nugent, Ross Driessen and Josh Dingjan. Coach – Corey Smith Managers- Rob Norton, Paul Woodham

Other extremely good results were in the 12 girls competition where Tasmania was one of only two teams and they went on to record a win in the final after competing strongly against the 13’s in the group stages, 19 Boys who were undefeated right through until losing the final 4-2 to Country Victoria, 10 Boys Tasmanian Zebras who lost the final with basically the last kick of the game to Queensland 6-5.

Every team was competitive and Tasmania showed they can be a force to be reckoned with in many age groups with a significant number of semi finalists to go along with the finals participants the future of Tasmanian Futsal is booming to new heights.

Stand out performers for Tasmania were the following – Trey Westbury (12 Boys), Cameron Rogers (12 Boys), DiPendra Kunwar (19 Boys), Trent Pearce (19 Boys), Conor Radburn (13 Boys), Hayley Fitzgerald (12 Girls), Gus Rumney (11 Boys), Ashley Sutton (10 Boys), Mathew Pace (10 Boys), Dean Watkins (11 Boys), Josh Norton (12 Boys), Georgia James (13 Girls), Alex Woodham (12 Boys), Hugh Helleman (12 Boys).

With a touring party of over 250 people Tasmania was once again commended in every area for its behaviour on and off the court and every player that participated was a credit to their state.

We look forward to the continued growth and hope that we can add to this National Title by winning a few more in future years.

Players interested in being involved in the Islanders Futsal Academy over summer please email Corey Smith from Futsal Tasmania on corey@vikingsfutsal.com for details.

Source : Futsal Tasmania
Published : 8/10/2008

Below is the response released by Football NSW to the initial article from Craig Foster “Greed poisons the game“. We are including this here in Futsal4all as it is of overall interest to the Futsal community in NSW. Football NSW control the game of Futsal in the state when it comes to official FIFA competitions, and at this stage is still the dominant player overall for the state. The play field is gradually changing, with Vikings on the scene and a few big associations already having moved away from Football NSW in the past months.

Note the response below came out 29th of September 2008. We did not publish it at that stage as it seemed mostly Football relevant, but as the discussion around it grows bigger and is attracting more press, to complete the overall picture we are publishing it here now.

Subsequent to the response below coming out, further information has been released by SBS. We mention it in this post here also published today.

The Football NSW original response now follows :

FNSW President Jim Forrest responds to recent criticism of the organisation by a journalist in the Sun Herald

FROM THE PRESIDENT
FOSTER SPRAY
29 September 2008

Most of us believed that with the advent of Frank Lowy and Football Federation Australia we’d be rid of Old Football and its politics of envy, malice and negativity.

Sadly, proponents of the Old Football remain among us. This is apparent in recent, unsubstantiated diatribes by Mr Craig Foster on the official SBS website and Sunday last in the Sun-Herald. Coaching and player development, and what we provide to our membership, attracted Foster’s ire, yet he made no attempt to contact either myself, or our CEO, Michael Quarmby, or our High Performance Manager, Paul Bentvelzen to discuss his stories. We need to put the record straight.

FUNDING

The only government funding received by Football NSW is $30,000 from the Department of Sport & Recreation, which goes to help support elite player development program through the NSW Institute of Sport.

Capitation fees to associations range from $3.23 to $12.85 for seniors. Yet the careful financial management of our organisation over recent years means that these fees only amount to 15 per cent of our total income. Instead, the bulk of our funding comes from sponsorship related sources, investments and competitions. Our self-funded player injury and public liability insurance has not been increased for three years, including for 2009.

COACHING

Football NSW’s coaching department’s areas of responsibility are coach education, player pathway programs, schools development, state team representation, school holiday camps, specialised coaching clinics, Indigenous and disability programs.

Our grassroots development, for players aged 7-10, is self-funded. The cost per session is $20 for a 90-minute session. This compares with $25-30 per session from independent academy providers. Beyond the 10s, FNSW focuses on elite player development, which is subsidised by FNSW, and on the coaching of coaches at Association level. A Junior development program provides intensive training for boys aged 11-12 and girls aged 11-14 to prepare them for representative selection, then we have the Johnny Warren program which feeds into into the NSW State Teams.

At Association level, in 2007 FNSW introduced an annual formal instructors’ course aimed at updating and educating all current coaches on the latest ideas. All updates are free of charge, conducted by FNSW qualified instructors with invited guests like Heather Garriock and Frank Farina. Junior, Intermediate etc coaching qualification initial courses are governed by FFA charges and not by FNSW.

In 2008 FNSW partnered with Global Ambition Group to provide an interactive webpage to allow coaches, parents, teachers and players to view detailed player development curriculum content. The website focuses on ages 5 to 19, free to visitors. It allows us to communicate directly with head coaches in every club and provides the basis for regular updating. Some 800 clubs in NSW have been given free access to the website for 12 months. Anybody else who wishes to avail to help them the costs is $39 per year. This is great value, given the costs of hosting and downloading the video files and suchlike. As well as their initial investments in developing this site.

From 1997 to 2007 FNSW was the COERVER sub-licensee for Oceania. The first three years ran at a loss. Thereafter there was an operating surplus of about 10 per cent, which was distributed to other, loss making coaching and player development areas. In the end, however, it was not economically viable to maintain this program, and the offering from FNSW was restructured.

In conclusion our coaching schemes have a net budgeted loss of $780,000.

SERVICE TO MEMBERS

Each year, Football NSW looks at major initiatives towards what we can give back to members and the game. In 2008, every grassroots coach was provided, through their Associations, with a Tip Top sponsored DVD for coaching ages 6-12 years. This year we distributed amongst Associations and Senior Clubs $250,000 in vouchers to assist in the offsetting of costs for the purchase of football equipment through the Soccer Wearhouse.

A national weekly TV show, Football Stars of Tomorrow, has been maintained. This highlights and promotes grassroots, coaching, refereeing, Futsal, Premier League and special interest stories. FNSW spends approximately $350,000 per annum on this program, which we believe is fully justified in promoting the code. In 2008, some 1,000,000 viewers watched this program.

As a special sponsorship, McDonalds this year spent, in conjunction with FNSW, some $400,000 to advertise and promote participation in football in NSW. As well as providing 32 scholarships x $500 each to assist the needy.

What we do for our members does not stop there. We are currently planning for up to 14 new grounds in north west Sydney, and are in discussions with developers for a further 20 fields in the south west growth sector.

This year FNSW has invested time and money in meetings with Association coaches to educate people in the new Small Sided Games concept. As with mini-soccer (later called Rooball) some two decades ago, in such a large organisation as ours these roll outs have to be carefully planned. They work best when developed consultatively with our members. That is why FNSW has called a meeting of Associations for 2nd October, to get your advice so the Board can make informed decisions.

REFEREEING

Finally, the Sun-Herald report mentions a referee matter. In the past year, FNSW has been working with a program to give up and coming Association referees an opportunity to officiate at the top level of our senior State League. Nevertheless, the responsibility remains with FNSW’s senior management to ensure an appropriate level of match official experience on every senior game.

On one occasion, a country referee was appointed to a Premier League championship fixture which our Senior Management did not feel was appropriate for such a high level game. He was replaced by an experienced official from a list of recommended appointees prepared by the Technical and Appointments Committee of the State League Football Referees Association. In the end, FNSW is responsible for appointing the best referees to each level of game, and we make absolutely no apology for ensuring that we get this right on the rare occasion where a mismatch occurs.

A lot more remains to be said about the positive achievements of Football NSW, which you’ll get over the next month or so. We’ve highlighted here responses to the major issues raised in the recent diatribes by Old Football’s Mr Craig Foster, simply to counter the entirely negative and uninformed comments recently in the Sun-Herald and on the SBS official website. It’s also an opportunity for us to tell you something of what we’re about, which is a positive benefit.

Yours sincerely,
Jim Forrest,
President Football NSW
29 September 2008

Source : Football NSW
Published : 29/9/2008

Whilst the footage linked below isn’t specifically Futsal related, it does relate to Football NSW who are under fire recently on how badly they are handling the sport in NSW (and by implication Futsal as well). It is certainly worth 10 minutes of your time to check it out.

Disappointing to hear that the Football NSW President and Chief Executive declined to go on camera to give their viewpoint of the accusations raised. Some of the discussion on the $ side of things is very interesting also.

Source : SBS Website
Published : 5/10/2008

Name	Michael Loupis
Nickname	Lupi
Date of Birth	18.12.1997
State/Country you play Futsal in	NSW Australia
What got you started in Futsal?	My Dad
What age did you start playing?	7
Preferred on field position	Left Flanker
Current Team/Club you play for	Sydney Magic PCYC / Mascot Vipers
Hardest Futsal opponent	Sydney City Eagles
Favourite Meal	Pasta
Favourite Hobby	Football & Futsal …… Equally
Favourite Team	Arsenal
Favourite Sportsperson	Thierry Henry and keeper Peter Spathis
Favourite Music	Top 40
Most Memorable Futsal moment on or off the court	Scoring 2 goals against Sydney City last year in the second round
Which coach would you say influenced you the most in Futsal and at what age?	Zvi who gave me an opportunity to play for the Vipers, 2 years ago at the State Championships at the age of 8
What was the best tip you’ve ever been taught in Futsal?	Be good to my father so that I can get a lift to the games
What goals do you still want to achieve in Futsal?	Win the 2008/09 Premier League, representing Australia
List 3 people you would love to have over for dinner	Thierry Henry, Falcao and Peter Spathis

 

SBS have a great Video article on their website covering the Football NSW Premier league opening round. It shows Sydney Magic playing Campbelltown Quake and also includes some footage of the Allstars Match.

Interviews are included with Erkin Osman, Rose Marie Scarlato and Andrew Nolan, where they all give their views on how beneficial Futsal can be.

Check it out by clicking on the pic below, or using this link here.

Source : SBS
Published : 5/10/2008
Thanks to Anthony Grima from Football Fed Victoria for the link

Hey, there, soccer fans.

Don’t turn the pages of this newspaper past the Kurukuru reports. Don’t turn off the TV and miss the early morning broadcasts of games. Don’t give up on our young team in Brazil..

As predicted here on this page, the Kurukuru are suffering heavy losses in the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Anything else would have been a nice surprise, a big one.

We have the youngest, smallest and least experienced team in the tournament playing against the giants of futsal, or indoor soccer.

That the Kurukuru got there in the first place by winning the Oceania championship was a major achievement. The ease with which they beat bigger and older players in the Oceania tournament in Fiji testifies to their potential. But to expect them to go to Brazil and immediately win World Cup games was unrealistic.

Scoring the opening goal against Cuba was an achievement, despite the 2-10 final scoreline. Pulling back to 2-3 against Japan after being down 0-3 was an achievement, despite the 2-7 final scoreline. Stopping all-conquering Brazil beating their previous record win (29-2 over Guatemala) was an achievement despite the 0-21 loss.

These are the experiences from which this young team will grow. Consider this. We don’t even have a proper size futsal court in this country. Futsal, like so many of our sports, suffers from the severe lack of facilities.

All the more reason to make sure we win the right to host the 2015 Pacific Games, with all the facilities this will bring to Honiara.

Consider this too. Australia represented Oceania in the previous five futsal World Cups. In all that time the Aussies, despite all the futsal they play and all the players they have, could win only two of 15 games. Both those were against lightweight teams.

Despite all their experience and playing strength Australia suffered numerous heavy defeats in their most recent Futsal World Cups. 0-10 against Brazil, 2-11 against Ukraine, 1-10 against Russia, 2-8 against Egypt and 0-7 against Spain are examples. That puts the Kurukuru performances in their first major international tournament into context.

The important thing now is to have faith in this promising young group. Give them the opportunity to develop through this experience.

Beating Brazil might be a distant dream. But given the opportunity the Kurukuru can certainly develop into more successful representatives of Oceania than the Aussies were.

Stay tuned to the TV at 2.30am tomorrow. Pick up your Star tomorrow morning. Look for the potential in our Kurukuru, not a win, as they face another massive challenge. Russia.

Source : Solomon Star Times – Editorial
Published : 6/10/2008

Records tumbled today at the Gimnasio Nilson Nelson in Brasilia. Russia’s 31-2 goal victory over the Solomon Islands is a new record for the FIFA Futsal World Cup, beating Brazil’s 29-2 goal thrashing of Guatemala eight years ago. In doing so, it was also the match which provided the most goals in the tournament’s history.

Pula, the Russian No7, who grabbed a hat-trick of hat-tricks during the match has also become the record goalscorer in one FIFA Futsal World Cup match. His record came in the 28th of the match to put his side 24-1 up.

Yet, despite all of the Russian goals, the loudest cheers were reserved for Jack Wetney and Micah Lea’alafa who grabbed the two consolation strikes for the Solomon Islands in the 23rd and 28th minutes respectively.

History was made ten minutes later when Nikolay Pereverzev slotted home to break the record. Ironically in a game which saw four players score four goals or more, it was his first and only goal of the match.

A total of 69 per cent of Russia’s shots on goal found their way past the Solomons’ unfortunate keeper Alick Lioka and they now return to Oceania with no points from their four games, having conceded 69 goals, an average of 17.25 per game.

Solomon Island coach Victor Wai’ia summed up his sides tournament with emphasis on the valuable experience gained by playing against the worlds best.

“Just being part of this World Cup has been a fantastic experience, because we’ve played such strong opponents. My team didn’t play well in the first half today, but we were better after the break,” Wai’ia said.

Match report and photos are available here.

Source : FIFA.com
Published : 6/102/008

Name	Simon Robert Keith
Nickname	Simmo
Date of Birth	26.7.1975
State/Country you play Futsal in	NSW Australia
What got you started in Futsal?	Some outdoor mates asked me to come and play in 1994
What age did you start playing?	19
Preferred on field position	Pivot
Current Team/Club you play for	Campbelltown City Quake
Hardest Futsal opponent	Neto from Brasil and Brett Hewit
Favourite Meal	Italian. Still waiting for some of Vizzari’s Nonna’s speciality
Favourite Hobby	Golf
Favourite Team	Celtic
Favourite Sportsperson	Greg Norman
Favourite Music	The Stranglers
Most Memorable Futsal moment on or off the court	Picking up a ball when we were winning 3 x 2 against Malaysia with .5 of a second to go and drawing 3 all. What an idiot. Then in the KL5’s later that year having a team mate tell me not to pick it up just before the end of the 1st half against Malaysia. Thanks Spath
Which coach would you say influenced you the most in Futsal and at what age?	Scott Gilligan at age 21
What was the best tip you’ve ever been taught in Futsal?	Don’t take people on at the back of the court and don’t pick the ball up in a game.
What goals do you still want to achieve in Futsal?	I would like to captain my country at the next world cup. I’ll keep playing for my country until some young punk is good enough to take my jersey.
List 3 people you would love to have over for dinner	Robert McKay, Ben Singleton and Scott Gilligan