Fiji has pulled out of the Oceania Beach Soccer Championship to be held in Tahiti at the end of this month.

The Fiji FA council said it not have the time to select and assemble a team.

Fiji Football Association president Muhammad Shams-ud Dean Sahu Khan said greater development work needed to be done in beach soccer.

He said focus would turn towards development of the five a-side game.

“We have seen the result in Futsal during the Oceania Championship in Suva,” Dr Sahu Khan said.

“From next year we will start a National Futsal League.

‘We will get the help of experts from FIFA and Oceania Football Confederation to help us.”

He said a new academy being built in Suva would have a futsal ground.

There are plans t, with a similar pitch planned for the Ba academy.

He said they would target schools.

The government had pledged to assist in building a futsal stadium in the country.

Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua and his deputy Fred Fono verbally assured the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) of the government’s assistance.

They made the assurance when briefly welcoming the National Futsal team, Kurukuru on their arrival at the Honiara International Airport yesterday.

Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua was returning with the players after attending the Melanesia Spearhead Group meeting in Vanuatu.

SIFF President Martin Alufurai welcomes the assurance adding SIFF already have the land available and only need government support to build the stadium.

He said very soon the futsal will explore beyond our hands.

“With the stadium to be build, we will bring the world here,” he said.

Kurukuru captain Elliot Ragomo said they really need the government and SIFF’s assistance to build a proper fustal stadium.

He said if the stadium is built it will boost the development of the sport and young players in the future.

“I have no doubt that one day we will become a world champion if the stadium is completed,” he said.

Fiji will stay in soccer’s dark following the reversal of a decision to do away with 60-minute soccer, former Fiji captain Abdul Mannan says.

He said the 60-minute game did not in help development in any way.

“We’ve been affiliated to FIFA for 70 long years and still the Fiji Football Association can’t realise that nowhere in the world is a 60-minute game played.”

He labelled the use of the format as a money-making gimmick.

We need to introduce 90-minute games at all levels.

“Fiji FA needs to look to the world for guidance,” he said.

“We’re not here for money. We’re here to develop soccer.

“All the tournaments have sponsors but we don’t know what happens to the money because we can’t see any development work.

He said Fiji’s performance in the Oceania Futsal championship was a good example of the lack of development.

“It’s sad, “I read in the papers about a new Futsal academy but it sounds like another false promise.”

Soccer strongman Mohammed Shams-ud Dean Sahu Khan told the FACT opening in Suva in June, the FA was doing away with the 60-minute format from next year.

After yesterday’s reversal, Mannan said the game at home needed a ’solid restructure’ “because tournaments put players under a lot of pressure”.

“There is too much soccer. We need to cut down the number of tournaments.

“If there is a structured season, fans will adjust and flock to watch 90-minute soccer.”

“We need to revive club games. Club soccer is dead,” he said.

“Club level soccer was the backbone when Fiji soccer was thriving,” he said.

Reflecting on a sweet victory at the OFC Futsal Championship against Fiji last Friday, Solomon Islands captain Elliot Ragomo says he is elated to defend the title.

“This proves we are champions and our standard is higher and the futsal is growing.

“I am so proud of the boys for the team work to successfully defends our title which we deserved,” he said.

Ragomo said now they are looking forward to the (invitational) tournament in Libya later this year and continue to lift the game.

“It’s going to be another big step forward for us and we are proud to be Futsal ambassadors for the Pacific.” He said.

With no surprise the Kurukuru scooped the overall awards of the championship.

Micah Lea’alafa sealed his status as the championship’s Golden Boot winner by scoring two goals in the final to take his haul to nine goals, two ahead of nearest rival – and teammate – Jack Wetney who also scored a pair in the final.

Wetney still left the arena with his fair share of the accolades, winning the Golden Ball Award for best player.

North Sydney council has ordered that the Anzac Club courts can no longer be used for Futsal or other sports. They are the landlord of the Anzac Club site and have threatened legal action against the Anzac Club, which will jeopardise their lease, if we keep playing. The council would not let us finish our current season which only had a few weeks to go.

We will be moving to an indoor venue from August 10th on Cnr Falcon/Miller st for all our upcoming seasons. Please discuss with your team if you would like to finish the last few weeks of the current season at the new venue from early August and email (admin@northsydneyfutsal.com) this week what you have decided.

The Summer Season is due to start as normal from early September to December at the new venue.

Enquiries ph 0410 400 601 or Email: admin@northsydneyfutsal.com

The U12 Boys from the Pirates’ Academy participated in their first State Club Championships this week. Despite playing well against two top MFL Clubs in the first round, they bowed out at the Quarter Final stage, going down 4-1 to the impressive Cobras.

In Game 1 they took the lead against the Reds and at half time it was only 2-1 to the opposition. But a lack of concentration in defence cost the Pirates’ any chance of a result, eventually going down 7-3.

It was a similar story against the Australian Futsal Group’s “A” team. The Pirates’ raced to a 3-0 lead and went into the break leading 5-3. But that was as good as it got, as lapses of concentration in defence cost them the match, eventually losing 8-5. They played much better against the older AFG Girl’s side winning 7-3.

There were some fine individual performances in various games, including some rocket free kicks from Jake; fine shot stopping from Goalkeeper David; tenacious tackling on the left wing from Nathan; great goals from Marcus, Conner and Andrew, and clever passing from Brandon and Adrian. It was young Alex’s first competitive tournament and he too showed plenty of commitment in the tackling. The squad will re start training on Saturdays in readiness for the Melbourne Futsal League which starts in October.

In anticipation that Sydney Benfica FC will be successful in its application to participate in the Football NSW 2009/10 Futsal Premier League, the club is looking for exciting and talented futsal players to trial for the following age groups;

12 Boys, 14 Boys, 16 Boys, Youth, Mens,
12 Girls, 14 Girls, 16 Girls and Womens.

Trials will also be held for our Benfica Eagles Academy U10 Boys/Girls. The first trial will be held on Saturday the 11th July 2009.

Venue: Marrickville PCYC – 531 Illawarra Road, Marrickville NSW 2204.

Women’s Trials: Saturday 18th July 2009
U12 Girls & U14 Girls 6.00pm – 7.00pm
• If you are a goalkeeper/player and you are wishing to trial for the above age groups, please contact Ian Skeoch on 0407 404 776.
• Please be advised that our 16 Girls and Women’s squad has been finalised. There will be no more trials for these age groups.

Womens Trials: Thursday 9th July 2009
U12 Girls & U14 Girls 7.30pm – 9.00pm
Women’s 9.00pm – 10.30pm
* Please be advised that our 16 Girls squad has been finalized. There will be no more trials for this age group.

Women’s Trials: Saturday 11th July 2009
U12 Girls & U14 Girls 6.00pm – 7.00pm

Men’s Trials:
U14 Boys – There will be one more trial for this age group. Date – TBA.
- Those interested in trialing, please contact Lorenzo D’Addona on 0414 663 919.
- Please be advised that our 12 Boys, 16 Boys, Youth and Mens squad has been finalised. There will be no more trials for these age groups.

Men’s Trials: Friday 3rd & 10th July 2009
U14 Boys 6.00pm – 7.00pm
U16 Boys 7.00pm – 8.00pm
U12 Boys 8.00pm – 9.00pm
Youth & Men’s 9.00pm – 10.30pm

Benfica Eagles Academy: Saturday 18th July 2009
Academy 5.00pm – 6.00pm

Benfica Eagles Academy: Saturday 11th July 2009
Academy 5.00pm – 6.00pm

All players must arrive 20 minutes prior to the commencement of trials.

All Sydney Benfica FC teams will participate in the FNSW State Titles, which will ensure that all players are eligible for selection trials for the Nationals.

For further details email info@benfica.com.au or contact Lorenzo D’Addona – 0414 663 919

Want to play Futsal?
Want to play in the upcoming NSW Futsal Premier League?

Sydney City Eagles are taking “Expressions of Interest” in the following age groups:

12 Boys, 14 Boys, 16 Boys, Youth
14 Girls and 16 Girls…

If interested, drop us a line with the following details to admin@sydneycityeagles.com

Name:
D.O.B:
Mobile:
Email:
Any Previous Futsal Clubs played for:
Current Outdoor Club and Position:

Trial Dates are yet to be confirmed!!!

Fiji’s humiliating 8-1 loss to the Solomon Islands in the OFC Futsal Championship final is no surprise for coach Imtiaz Khan.

Khan said Fiji lost to a better team.

He said the Solomons had specialist futsal players.

“We knew it will be hard to beat them with this team. I’m happy we made it to the final,” said Khan.

The former star Suva team midfielder, who represented the national team in both codes, said despite the national team’s failure to impress in the championship, the future of futsal was promising.

“By playing in the final, we’ve proved we have potential,” he said.

“We now look forward to an improved outing in next year.”

He said to field a better prepared national team, the way forward was to start a Futsal National League to be played concurrently with the National League.

The Grand Prix de Futsal is an international futsal competition of the same kind as the FIFA Futsal World Cup, but with invited nations and its held annually in Brazil. It was first held in 2005.

This year there were 16 teams invited :

Brazil, Czech Republic, Mozambique, Peru, Iran, Costa Rica, Romania, Uruguay, Guatemala, Angola, Paraguay, Hungary, Ukraine, Argentina, Venezuela and Ecuador

FutsalPlanet.com have a great summary page of the Grand Prix available for viewing here. That will give you all the results, groups standings and match details in a single page.

In a nutshell, the top 5 placings were : 1.  Brazil, 2. Iran, 3. Romania, 4.  Czech Republic, 5. Argentina

The official site FutsaldoBrasil has lots of great reports and video footage. Here are some of the direct links…

Video Highights Page (click on the ‘Goals Video’ link next to each match. If you want the page in English, click on the USA flag near the top left of the page under the main logo).

Brazil vs Iran in the Final (WMV file)

A couple others have been put on YouTube, including a nice goal from Falcao…