First teams confirmed

The first teams were confirmed for The FA UMBRO Futsal Cup Finals last weekend, with two clubs from the Midlands and one from the South succeeding in the second Qualification Rounds.

Taking place at the English Institute Of Sport in Sheffield in early July, a total of seven teams will battle it out for the 2008 title and the first three teams to seal their spot in the Finals were confirmed on both Saturday and Sunday.

Both Team United Birmingham and The University Of Worcester will represent the Midlands after securing their passage to the Finals in Sheffield with victories in the qualifiers at Moulton College in Northampton on Sunday.

The first of the three teams from the South to complete their qualification is Newham Genesis, who succeeded at the Bethnal Green Technology College on Saturday and they can now begin their preparations for the Finals whilst the remaining qualifiers will take place next weekend.

In the Midlands, Team United Birmingham were in good goalscoring form with their victories coming against Lutterworth Grammar School (8-3), West Glebe Park (8-1) and New Saints (5-2) and manager Ikhlaq Hussain was delighted to see his side progress.

“We missed out on the Finals last season when we only lost one game, so we’re looking forward to going to Sheffield now,” he said.

“At this stage and on behalf of the team, I’d like to say well done to Djallali Rhomoni, who has been putting so much effort in all season and when we went to Northampton, people were clapping his performances there.”

They are joined by The University Of Worcester, whose wins against Thorplands United (6-1) and Futsalopians (4-2) secured their place in the Finals.

“We have just made a team out of players from the football team at the University, none of us had really played much Futsal before,” revealed captain Andy Jones.

“One of our players, Shane Gill (pictured above), has been involved with the England Futsal squad, so he has taught us a little more about the game and how it’s played best and we’ve just learnt as we have gone along really.

“We’ve been quite solid at the back in all of the games we’ve played and we have a bit of pace too, so we’ve managed to get a few goals.

“We’re now looking forward to Sheffield, it will be a great challenge and experience for us.”

Also making the journey to South Yorkshire on 4 - 6 July will be Newham Genesis, after they saw off opposition from FC Europe (6-4), 87 Acres (7-3) and Manuden FC (6-0).

An established team on the five-a-side circuit, manager Joe Toko is confident that they can head to Sheffield with high hopes.

“We have been playing together for a while now,” he revealed.

“We have a few players who showed a lot of potential when they were younger but haven’t quite made it so we have the hunger and we're quite confident that we can do well in the Final.”