League Futsal Update
This year we have experienced a large challenge with an additional 120 new teams joining the Futsal Development Programme and teams expressing an interest to join from other leagues.
With over 200 teams it does become difficult to accommodate all the demands.
We have a range of venues selected covering Barnsley, Chesterfield, Dronfield, Rotherham and Sheffield.
The main challenge is to find available sports centre that offer the suitable facilities.
This year we using some different venues and those venues which proved unpopular have not been reserved.
One of the key decisions we consider important is to have the U7’s at one venue over the three week development period since the league can adequately provide the resources to co-ordinate the event. This worked well last year at the venue in Sheffield with the range of excellent services but car parking availability and cost were of concern to managers and parents.
This year all U7’s will be based at the Rotherham Football Centre with the provision of 4 pitches approved by the County FA for Futsal but there will be some changes to the markings of the pitch. Further details will be provided in more detail to those Clubs and Teams.
It is important that the venues satisfy our reasonable requirements and provide a safe environment. Therefore your feedback on venues plays an important part of the decision making process.
At the moment all the fixtures are being verified and we are still receiving request to join the futsal development programme. We appreciate the difficulties Clubs face in terms of communications and finances etc. Equally we are keen to release fixtures asap but with Futsal we are prepared to be flexible. We are supportive to create the opportunity for teams to be involved with the Futsal Development Programme but this causes delays with fixtures.
Therefore next year we will be seeking payment sooner so that we can easily determine the number of teams involved, book the number of places and release the fixtures months in advance especially given the December and January festive period.
Another improvement we are keen to undertake is the meet and greet service at venues. This again is a challenge for the league and we can provide appropriate arrangements and welcome feedback from Managers and Parents. At Rotherham we will have about 80 teams at one venue and there will be a co-ordinator to deal with all matters. At other venues we will ask the referees to help assist matters but they have the demands on the day.
We are keen to increase the number of Futsal referees and we are trying to get a course on. This will be ONLY available to League registered referees, and details will be sent to them in due course once we have dates the courses are taking place on.
Further announcements and up dates will be provided over the next few days and set out below are the proposed Futsal Rules which apply this season 2014/15 to the U7’s to U10’s. There is an opportunity for variation to assist the development of the players but the MANDATORY RULE is no slide tackles and I know everyone will appreciate the reasons and justifications.
Please note that some fixtures with dates and times have been released to several teams where it is possible and ALL fixtures will be released on the 6th November. Thank you for your patience in this matter.
Any questions, points of clarification or concerns can be emailed to futsal@junleague.com
Kind regards
Stuart Williams