Rio 2016 is history, the FIFA Futsal World Cup is about to start in Colombia and the futsal world laments, as every four years, that we do not witness a double feature.

Yet the push for futsal to join the Olympic programme continues. The sport’s hopes were raised significantly, perhaps for the first time, just over a year ago. Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, first mentioned in an interview to Brazilian site Globo Esporte in February 2015 that the IOC had not forgotten futsal despite its absence from the Rio games. A pathway to Tokyo 2020 (or, even perhaps, to Beijing 2022) might have to detour through Buenos Aires, featuring first in the Youth Olympic Games that the Argentinian capital will host in 2018. FIFA then took the next step in September 2015, announcing without much fanfare that futsal will indeed replace football at the Youth Olympic Football Tournament in Buenos Aires.

FIFA and the IOC have long had a thorny relationship, which may have a lot to do with why futsal is not yet an Olympic sport despite fulfilling all the required conditions to become one. When Rio was selected to organise the 2016 Olympic Games, the futsal world had reasonable hopes that the sport with most participants in the hosting nation (yes, that’s futsal!) would be featuring in the games for the first time. However, it was not to be.

Officially, for the IOC futsal is just a branch of football, which is regulated by FIFA. With a limit on the total number of athletes that can compete in any given games, the 12 football teams already push FIFA’s quota in the games. Yet money, in this case, might break this impasse rather than being the impediment. FIFA are not necessarily keen on a second worldwide tournament sandwiched between World Cups, a tournament where profits fill IOC’s pockets rather than FIFA’s. Conversely, the Futsal World Cup is a much smaller business that may benefit from the extra exposure brought in to futsal by coming into the Olympic programme and eventually increase the flux of cash towards football’s (and futsal’s) governing body.

Are we just dreaming or has futsal really got a hope to be an Olympic sport?

Please participate in our poll!

Read our article and let us know what you think: will futsal ever be an Olympic sport? https://t.co/M5tzropPW6

— The IFA (@IFA_Futsal) September 1, 2016

The International Futsal Academy are happy to announce that Spanish coach Juanan García will be joining the programme as Head Coach following the departure of Daniel Berdejo del Fresno, who will start a new coaching adventure in the USA after the Summer.

Juanan García is a Futsal UEFA Pro Licensed coach, having obtained Spain’s top futsal qualification, has managed in the Spanish 2B division and was the Assistant Manager for three seasons, between 2010 and 2013, at professional club Uruguay-Tenerife during part of their golden era as a professional Club in the Spanish LNFS. He is also Manager of several of the Canary Islands national team age groups, and has been collaborating for 6 seasons with Inter Movistar, coaching in their Summer camps in Madrid.

Juanan commented: I leave behind everything I’ve got in Tenerife, to face this challenge, so different from everything I’ve done so far. This adventure, coaching at the IFA and with the Super League team, will help me grow as a coach.  At the same time I hope to contribute towards the players’ development transmitting the knowledge I’ve accumulated through courses, seminars and, mainly, on the court side. I’m really excited with this project, in a season in which we’ll be ambitious and we’ll work daily to achieve day to day improvement. I’m grateful for the trust the programme has placed in me and I’m hoping to repay it reaching our aims.

The Leicestershire Academy of the IFA have announced three camps for August, to be held in two different locations across Leicestershire.  Crown Hills Community College will host two futsal camps. The first one will run on the 1st and 2nd of August, with the second one on 15th and 16th, both 10am-3:30pm

There will also be a football camp on 9th and 10th August, 9am-3pm, where futsal concepts and how they can be transferred to football will be put on practice.

All three camps are for U7 to U11 players

The IFA are proud to announce that they have now produced in partnership with Loughborough college and new and exciting degree in Sports Coaching tailored to futsal.

The first of its kind in the world and ground breaking in the development and growth in Futsal as the game continues to grow around the world and in England the programme wants to create excellece in all areas including the workforce for the game. Modules on the sports coaching degree have been written by futsal experts and look at many areas including the psychology and physiology around futsal but also comparing it against other sports like football in many areas such as tactical and coaching aspects. Its a not a futsal degree but a sports coaching degree which has core elements but specialised futsal elements, so a candidate can come onto the degree and have similar outcomes as any other sports coaching degree or more tailored outcomes to futsal.

Michael Skubala ‘ IFA director and current England Futsal Manager said this about the course.

‘Its amazing step in the development of Futsal. Doing futsal properly linked with education is really important for the development of the game which does not have the cultural foundations of football. Its great to be able to offer another option along with all the other degrees on offer here at Loughborough. We feel there is a real industry work force growing around futsal and we want to be producing the players and staff of tomorrow! – when the first co-hort of students land after 3 years they will have excellence playing experienced coupled by and excellent futsal knowledge which will make them extremely employable in football clubs or futsal programmes in the UK and around the globe’

Scholarship places are also available for the new programme. For more information contact [email protected].

Course details: -https://www.loucoll.ac.uk/courses/foundation-degree-in-sports-coaching-futsal

On Monday, Grismby Town Futsal Club hosted Head of Coaching & Sport Science, Daniel Berdejo-del-Fresno and Head of Development, Marc Forrest as part of ongoing coaching workshops for FLT Clubs, players and staff.

The session was a FREE International Futsal Academy coaching session based on pressing and attacking combinations open to Football League Trust Clubs players and staff to support clubs and give an insight into the environment of the Leading Elite Futsal and Education Programme in the United Kingdom

“Grimsby Town Sport and Education Trust were delighted to be offered the opportunity to have the IFA coaches come in and work with our Futsal learners. This gave our learners the opportunity to showcase their ability to the IFA coaches while at the same time receiving coaching from two elite experienced coaches. The sessions gave the learners great content and lot of ideas to take away and implement into their own games. We want to thank Daniel and Marc for their time, it was appreciated by all players and staff.”
Mark Westerby, Grimsby Town Futsal Head Coach

“Grimsby Town Futsal Programme has a depth of talented young players that possess and
demonstrate great potential both within their academics and Futsal. Mark, Scott and the staff must be commended on their efforts being made to develop their students who are a credit to their programme.”
Head of Development, Marc Forrest

Head of Coaching and Sport Science, Daniel Berdejo-del-Fresno and Head of Development, Marc Forrest continued their delivery of coaching workshops to Football League Trust Clubs supporting clubs, players and coaches. Berdejo-deal-Fresno and Forrest visited Sheffield United during a 2 hour session.

The session was a FREE International Futsal Academy coaching session based on pressing and attacking combinations open to Football League Trust Clubs players and staff to support clubs and give an insight into the environment of the Leading Elite Futsal and Education Programme in the United Kingdom

“It was a pleasure to host Marc and Danny from the IFA today as they delivered a superb two hour practical Futsal session to our Level 2 BTEC students. The session was thoroughly engaging and extremely informative. This taster session has been a brilliant insight for the students that are looking to continue on to further education upon leaving our course. We are looking forward to hopefully bringing our students down to the Loughborough Campus for an exhibition match and a tour of the facilities. Thank you from all of us at Sheffield United Community Foundation to Marc and Danny for taking the time out to visit our programme.”
Chris Marshall, Sheffield United Futsal Coach