Futsal
About Futsal
Futsal is an exciting, fast-paced small sided football game that originated in South America in the1930s and is now played widely across the world. The nature of the game places a large emphasis on technical skill and ability in situations of high pressure and is subsequently an excellent breeding ground for football competencies that can be translated into the 11-a-side format of the game. Many of the top world class footballers played Futsal in their youth and credit it with supporting their footballing development. Players of the calibre of Pele, Zico, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Lionel Messi to name but a few of the South American legends all played and enjoyed Futsal. But Futsal has not just helped produce South American football stars, on the European stage Cristiano Ronaldo, Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas amongst many others have played Futsal to develop their skills.
Futsal has seen considerable growth in the UK over the past few years and this trend looks set to continue with the game having the potential of growing to levels seen in other countries such as Spain where futsal is both a fundamental part of the football landscape and an important game in its own right.
Raiders have from an early stage recognised the importance of futsal and the club’s latest set of objectives includes a target to ‘support the development of futsal’.
We include futsal training within our boys Saturday football training programme for our U7s to U10s age brackets with the sessions held on a rotation basis for each squad. Our Girls teams benefit from futsal training throughout all age brackets held on a rotation on their respective football training days.
Further background to futsal and a guide to some of the rules can be found in the video links below:
https://www.thefa.com/get-involved/player/futsal
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD0ZHQ3RQn6faQzMzB-tO1g
In further recent positive progress, the FA have restarted England Futsal, which commenced with the u19s playing in the UEFA European Championships in January 2023. You can find out more here: https://www.englandfootball.com/articles/2022/Dec/20/The-FA-announces-a-new-partnership-with-England-Futsal
Regular Futsal Coaching
We hold Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night Futsal training for both girls and boys sections from U10s upwards which is available to players both part of and outside of Raiders Football.
The sessions are delivered by FA Futsal Qualified coaches and incorporate futsal specific drills, tactics, technique and game knowledge.
We have partnered with Escolla Football whose experienced coaches deliver many of our sessions and where we provide a pathway for our experienced players to develop and play for Escolla’s senior futsal teams competing in the National Futsal League. Following recent trials, we are also waiting to hear if some of our former Raiders players have been selected to play for England!
Our current training timetable is as follows:
Mondays
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7.00-8.30pm U13-U16 Boys Section Elite – Academy (invitation only)
Tuesdays
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5.00-6.30pm U10-U15 Girls Section
6.30-8.00pm U12-U14 Boys Section
Wednesdays
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5.00-6.00pm U11-U13 Mixed
6.00-7.00pm U14-U18 Boys Section
We also partner with Ross & Andy Soccer Camps who offer Tuesday Futsal sessions from U6s through to U11s creating a pathway for them to move up in to the Raiders training sessions.
For further information or to register player interest, please contact our futsal coordinators at https://www.berkhamstedraiders.com/join-raiders/membership-enquiry/
Berkhamsted Raiders Futsal Teams and Matches
We continue our participation in competitive futsal matches and enter several local leagues with regular games played. We are also entering several teams in to this year’s National Futsal Youth Cup tournament.
To introduce players to competitive matches we do also look to arrange friendly futsal games either within Raiders or versus other teams whenever possible. No prior futsal experience is needed to participate although we would encourage joining the futsal coaching sessions if possible.
In the 2022-2023 year the principal boys age groups with regular matches were from the U10’s to U16’s and we continue to look to increase the age groups and number of teams. We do also engage multi-age group teams where leagues / competitions permit.
We are also in discussions with a local league to develop more match opportunities for the girls section and aim to grow this over the next season
With the surge in popularity for futsal training and matches, we are also looking for more managers to take forward growing this sport in both girls and boys sections. If you are interested in managing one of our futsal teams then please get in touch.
Contacts
If you have any queries and would like to make contact, please do message our Futsal Coordinator, at futsal[AT]berkhamstedraiders.com