We recently announced a really exciting partnership between the International Futsal Academy and Portuguese club ABC Nelas.  We are now delighted to announce that Blaise Gapp will be the first IFA graduate travelling to Portugal on 19^th August 2018.  Blaise has been a huge credit to the futsal programme at Loughborough and we are thrilled that he will have the opportunity to enrich his futsal journey by spending time in Portugal.  Blaise will be giving regular updates on his time at ABC Nelas so watch this space to see how he gets on.

The International Futsal Academy are delighted to announce a formal partnership with the Portuguese futsal club ABC Nelas. ABC Nelas are known for their work in developing their academy players, from as young as 6 years old, to go on to become hugely successful players. Their most successful alumni to date is André Coelho, who is not only a European Champion but also has a Masters in Engineering. The Club have spent many successful years in Portugal’s 2nd division and last season were in the promotion battle which went down to the wire and therefore this is a hugely exciting time for us to become an official partner with them.

The IFA continues in it’s pursuit to provide the best futsal and education opportunities for our student-players and with ABC Nelas playing at such a high standard in the Portuguese leagues (and of course not forgetting that Portugal are the current European champions) we are excited about how much our players and staff team will gain from this partnership.One of the most exciting collaborations is that at least one of our highest achieving IFA graduates per season will gain a two week, expenses paid, trial in Portugal with ABC Nelas. Success in this trial will lead to the invaluable experience of a longer period placement/contract with the club. We will shortly be announcing the name of the first of our IFA student-players to travel to Portugal next month.

Are you interested in futsal, one of the world’s fastest growing sports, and would like to be in a performance programme alongside your studies? Would you like to be part of the Loughborough Sports experience – the educational choice for athletes from all over the world?

At the International Futsal Academy (IFA) we offer our students the ability to achieve these ambitions, so why not join us on our two day Easter development camp (4th and 5th April) to see what we have to offer here at Loughborough on our Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) Futsal Education Programmes, with Loughborough College and Loughborough University

The camp aims to give you an insight on what it’s like to be part of our unique futsal and education programme, and to see first hand the amazing environment and facilities in Loughborough. The provisional schedule is:

Wednesday 4th April:
– 10am registration and checking in accomodation
– 11am training session and team building
– 1:30pm lunch
– 2.30pm campus tour
– 4pm training
– 7pm dinner
– 9pm observation of Loughborough Futsal’s Super League team training session.

Thursday 5th April:
– 9am breakfast
– 10am training session
– 12 noon IFA programe presentation: Futsal and Education
– 1pm lunch
– 2pm technical meeting and team building
– 3pm closing and social

The cost of the camp, including overnight accommodation, food and all sessions, is £65. Limited places are available. For more information, please e-mail [email protected], or click here to book.

When Head Coach Joao Almeida agreed to deliver a futsal specific goalkeeping session for our visiting Chinese students, we didn’t imagine our goalkeepers would end up with a fan club

Marking the 10th Anniversary of the introduction of futsal in Loughborough, the teams playing under Loughborough Futsal Club, in the FA National Futsal Leagues, will share a new and exciting identity. The new branding includes a new badge and new kit colours, both inspired in Loughborough traditions but intently looking to the future.

Loughborough Futsal Club chairman and IFA Academy Manager Idafe Pérez Jiménez, explains the move.

In recent years, out of the complexity of the programmes structure here in Loughborough, the Super League team has suffered from some indetermination. Many people, often even some belonging to our own setup, can’t get their head around where the team fits in the picture. Is it part of the Students Club, as it always was? Has it been absorbed by the IFA?

Between all parts involved we concluded there was a need to visually clarify this, and decided, synchronised with the start of the new FA Futsal Super League, to give teams competing within the National Leagues a common and separate identity whilst respecting the links to our history.

Loughborough Students Futsal chairman Matthew Lawson offers a view from the student side.

I firmly believe that this rebranding will provide a clear statement that the Loughborough Futsal club has its own unique branding whilst still resembling the base that supports it from both the university side and the IFA. The rebranding itself has included the committee on the student side as an equal voice in the process, and the Loughborough Futsal Club will always have the continual support from every level within the Students Futsal Club. The importance of representing the Loughborough Futsal Club from the student side cannot be understated, with this new branding, players will be more determined than ever to climb through the teams to have the opportunity to represent Loughborough futsal at the highest levels. The University side will remain as the main pathway into the Super League side. The partnership between the student setup and the IFA has already shown promise in the previous season and I am certain that this rebranding will strengthen the relationship between the two futsal clubs, and provide a base to continually improve in the future, long after I am gone!

The history behind it

Futsal in Loughborough started in 2007. The setup has evolved hugely since those times, and now, marking the 10th Anniversary of this inception, the national competitions end of the programme gets its own and new identity.

Born Loughborough University Futsal, as part of the Loughborough Football setup, futsal was initially a playtime for players of Loughborough Students Association Football club. Within a few years, the critical mass of people doing only futsal and the success of the programme granted the creation of a futsal specific Club, Loughborough Students Futsal Club, a dominating force in University competitions and soon a consolidated team in the National League system. The further growth of futsal, and leaning heavily in the Students Club, the International Futsal Academy was created to provide a comprehensive development programme for players that wanted to take their futsal to a new level whilst studying Higher Education.

The difficulties of running a team in national competitions from a Students Club are undeniable. This further forged the alliance between Loughborough Students and the IFA, who partnered together to become the two pillars that sustained Loughborough Futsal Club in the FA Futsal Super League when it was introduced. Loughborough Students Futsal Club and Loughborough Futsal are hence twin brothers, that currently compete in the BUCS competitions and the National Leagues respectively. In the meantime, the IFA remains Britain’s leading futsal development programme and continues to provide players to both parts of the setup. Still aiming to become a futsal reference national, it is also the coaching provider for both setups and, when projects in the pipeline consolidate, to other programmes in the country and abroad.

Loughborough Futsal Club’s home colours will be plain white, adopting the colour of the away kits of both Loughborough Students and the IFA. The Club’s away kit and goalkeepers home attire will be all red, like the new badge, whilst the third kit will be blue, in reminiscence to the colours of the team when it started playing in the foundational National League as Loughborough University.

Aidan Shields, who graduated Design in July and has played for Loughborough in BUCS and the National League since he joined the University 4 years ago, designed Loughborough Futsal Club’s new  identity.

Why this badge? What’s the inspiration?

This badge I hope reflects Loughborough’s desire to innovate, push boundaries and be one of the pioneers in British Futsal. The inspiration behind this is an accumulation of what I see everyday in the world of brand, with particular consideration given to how the brand identity of sports teams is changing direction.

What are the main elements of the new Loughborough Futsal badge?

To try and achieve a clean, bold identity, the badge has been stripped down to three elements: one segment in the form of an ‘L’ and the other two as the two horizontal strips of an ‘F’. These stand for Loughborough Futsal, and combined they give the form of a traditional shield.

How does it fit within modern branding trends?

In recent times brand leaders are taking greater notice of the finer details. Juventus, Manchester City and Liverpool, to name a few, have revamped their brand identities these last few years and all wear a new badge on their shirts than they did several years ago. The changes teams are making to their badges specifically, is to modernise.

Today, modernising means cleaning up the badge, removing the unnecessary and creating something as clear and crisp as possible, keeping in touch with tradition and creating an identity that will ultimately look good. The clearer and crisper the badge, the more memorable the brand is in the mind of the world. This helps build a stronger brand identity.

The most drastic development of this type is the Juventus rebrand. This change was scrutinised by groups of fans since it cut ties with tradition and history associated with the old badge. One thing is certain though, when I heard “Juventus FC” last year I thought of black and white stripes and sort of classic oval badge. Now I will envisage black and white stripes and the new badge with clarity. To add to that I now see them as an innovator in the footballing world, moving forward and wanting to be at the forefront of football’s future. Hopefully this new brand identity can achieve something similar.

What does Loughborough Futsal mean to you from a personal point of view? Did this personal relationship with the Club help you to design its new identity?

Loughborough Futsal means two things to me: “futsal family” and a determination to succeed that I’ve not experienced anywhere else. These are things too complex to convey in a badge alone, but I’ve also seen first hand the club’s determination to push boundaries and take futsal in this country to new levels. The group’s innovative nature is what helped direct this design, as I wanted the club’s brand identity to match its determination to innovate and break the norm a little.

Loughborough Futsal Club teams in the FA Futsal Super League, the FA National League Division 2 and the FA Women’s National Futsal League will be wearing the new colours and badge from the start of the 2017/18 season, and the lborofutsal.com website is undergoing redevelopment to be launched when the first Super League fixture takes place against York City on 1st October.

Juanan Garcia, IFA head coach and manager of Loughborough’s Super League team in the 2016/17 season, has signed for futsal giants Inter Movistar of Madrid, to lead their U19s side in the Division the Honor Juvenil, a team that will aspire to be Spanish youth futsal national champions.
After a successful season, that saw Loughborough finishing third in the Super League and in which the Academy team reached the semifinal of the FA Futsal Cup, Juanan now leaves the students behind to work for one of the best Clubs in the World. We asked him to share his thoughts with us:

What do you know about the team you’ll be managing?

As of today, I know that lst season they finished third in the División de Honor Juvenil, and that the aim is to improve this in the upcoming season. I know we have great players for the future of the club, that soon will be on the TV screens competing as LNFS players.

How would you summarise your season at Loughborough?

Even though everything was so rushed, the language barrier and some personal medical problems, the season was satisfactory in every way. The evolution of players between the first and the last game played shows, in my opinion, what they have been training and the work completed daily.

Where do you think the International Futsal Academy is within British futsal, after leading the programme for a year?

For any English player, being in the IFA is a guarantee to progress. Just consider the workload in the programme, and that is led by coaches with great knowhow in this sport, development did, does and will happen.

If you had to chose a memory from the season, what would that be?

I have great memories, from when I arrived to Loughborough on 13th September and started with the first session already on the 14th, through the Super League knockout against Genesis or qualifying to the FA Futsal Cup Finals with the Academy team. My best memory comes though from a game in which we were not playing for anything but at the same time we were playing for everything, taking the team in a very bad place and managing to return confidence to the players, helping them believe they could achieve anything they aimed and managing to help them win a game fying for forty minutes, without a goalkeeper. This is only within the reach of great players.

What’s your impression of English futsal now?

English futsal’s main problem is the competition organisation. Management should be open to new ideas and accept concepts that may help them develop the game, which can be very different from the preconceived ideas they might bring from football. Regarding players’ potential, the raw material is there so the potential is there, but now investment on their development is needed.

How do you feel about your new adventure at Inter Movistar?

I started in this sport full of hopes and dreams. Events occur in succession, and now I see myself yet in another one of them. And I’ll endeavour to put in practice everything I’ve learned as a coach, stepping forward into one of the greatest challenges I’ve ever had.

What are your ambitions for the future? What’s the dream?

Right now I can only think on this season. We start 14th August, and I want to do my best to keep reaching milestones. As a dream, right now probably unrealistic, it could be to manage a LNFS team, but that’s something I don’t think about at the moment.

What would you like to say to Loughborough and IFA players ahead of the new season?

Loughborough and IFA players have a huge potential. They need to keep on working in the same line collectively, to keep evolving and improving in the upcoming season. They need to always trust they can achieve any target they set themselves.

From the International Futsal Academy we want to wish Juanan the best luck in this new adventure at Inter Movistar