French test for Dell's men

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England Futsal Coach Graeme Dell has his eyes firmly set on two home friendlies against France at Sheffield's impressive £24m English Institute of Sport later this month.

These two back-to-back games will be Dell's last opportunity to assess his players before England set out on pre-qualification for next year's UEFA European Futsal Championship Finals in Portugal.

The Three Lions will travel to Deva in Romania during January to play in a four team pre-qualification group against the hosts Romania, along with Latvia and Bulgaria with the group winner going through to February’s Qualification stage. The two best performing runners-up from the three pre-qualification groups will also qualify for the next stage.

France however are already assured of a presence in February’s Qualification Round on merit, and are substantially ahead of England in their Futsal development. These two games will be yet another tough test for England.

French coach Pierre Jacky will encounter a youthful but resilient England team still searching for their first win at this demanding and technically challenging FIFA version of 5-a-side which Dell sees as key to young player development.

"The more Futsal I see around the World the more I am convinced of its benefit to the development of young footballers," said Dell. 

"We are convinced at The FA about the merits of the game and are committed to developing it in England and these internationals are a great way of promoting Futsal to a wider audience and educating them at the same time.

"As for this squad, each player is getting closer to the time when they will be judged on how they deliver in tournament play and I still have to finalise my squad for January.

"I am hopeful that this group of players will therefore all stake a valid claim for a place on that squad with shining performances against France and end the year on a high."

Captain Alex Sykes is not included in this squad with Dell reviewing all of his options ahead of January’s qualifiers. Recent impressive debuts by Halifax Towns Steven Torpey and Bognor’s duo of Darren Budd and Ben Watson in front of a crowd of over 5,000 in Poland have been rewarded with recalls and Graeme Dell will be pleased to include the return of former Derby County player Michael Lyons.

The full squad