Futsal has been on the rise in the United Kingdom and with the England’s Mens Futsal team looking to top 20 FIFA world ranking by 2024, more people are picking up the sport and it can only be positive.
FC Halifax Town Academy/Community manager Nick Spooner says when abroad Futsal is “so popular” compared to England where it is practically “unheard of”. He says that since Covid that the game is “rising” in popularity and it is only a good thing as it is getting more people involved on a monthly basis.
FC Halifax Town have been providing Futsal training sessions since 2011 and they have recently set up teams in the past 2 years. They have teams at U10, U12 and U13’s and they have approximately 80 participants in the sessions they run.
Spooner says its about “giving local options for people in the area so they don’t have to travel 1 hour away or more to have the chance to play”. He says that the club providing Futsal “allows people to not be limited and have a variety of choices when it comes to football and sport in general”.
At Town the people who participate in Futsal will pay a subscription fee to be part of the sessions and play matches. This is so the club can run the programme with no financial barrier as they can’t rely on funding from other sources.
When asked how the club advertise their Futsal programme he said, “We do this through match programmes, social media and mainly word of mouth. That’s how we really push it by people giving good reviews and recommending it to people”.
Hopefully Town can contribute to the next Futsal generation that boosts England up the FIFA rankings in the future.
