Futsal In England

Not played on any large scale, Futsal is still in the embryonic stages of development in England.

Until the introduction of the first official National Championships organised by The FA in July 2003, it had been left to individual groups of futsal pioneers to develop the game in their local areas, venturing abroad when they could to play the game at a more advanced level.

Kick-started firstly by the visit of the first international futsal team to English shores, when Tranmere Victoria hosted the Iranian National Futsal Team in October 2002 and then by the interest generated from a pilot futsal tournament hosted by Sheffield Hallamshire FA in the November of the same year, the Football Association began to put in place plans to take the game forward at a grass roots level in 2003 through the establishment of a National Championships and the participation of Tranmere Victoria in the 2003 – 2004 UEFA Futsal cup.

The first National Championships were played in July 2003, drawing teams from regional qualifying competitions in London, Cheltenham, Wirral, Sheffield and Grimsby, with Sheffield Hallam Futsal Club being crowned champions.

Just before the national Championships the first ever England Futsal team gathered, under Head Coach Graeme Dell, to take part in a major International Futsal Tournament taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The KL5’s saw 11 other teams, including Brazil, Argentina and Japan join England to compete for a $100,000 prize.

Since Kuala Lumpur the national futsal team programme has continued to move on, with the England team participating in the preliminary rounds for the 2005 UEFA Futsal Championship in January 2004.

This was a landmark event in the history of English Futsal, being the first time that an England National Team had competed in an official UEFA competition. Again under the guidance of Graeme Dell, and drawn against two other nations relatively new to the sport - Cyprus and Albania - England travelled to Albania keen to build on some encouraging performances in the KL5’s but narrowly lost out in both matches.