AFC Futsal Development Programme

Table of Contents

1 Introduction................................................................................................................1
2 Presentation................................................................................................................3
3 Status Assessment ......................................................................................................5
4 Tailor-made program.................................................................................................8
4.1 Management & Administration ........................................................................8
4.2 Development of Technical Skills.......................................................................8
4.3 Competition Structure .......................................................................................9
4.4 Facilities & Equipments.....................................................................................9
4.5 Finance & Marketing.........................................................................................9
4.6 Agreed Goals ......................................................................................................9
5 Implementation ....................................................................................................... 10

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1 Introduction
Futsal, although introduced around 1936 in South America, only in the last 10 years
developed around the world as a sport by its own, with a world strong governing
body, standardized rules, grassroots and youth development, national and
international competitions for men and woman, introduction in schools and
universities and the development of scientific studies.
It is clear, though, that in most countries, futsal is still being played without the
approved Laws of the Games and, most of the time, without the control of the
National Associations.
This situation, present two main problems:
• There is no sustainable development of futsal players
• There are no (or few) official competitions
Most National Associations do not see futsal as game by itself, a tool to further
develop the technical skill of young players and an easy way to further strength and
enlarge the role of the National Association as a leading sport institution in the
country.
In the most developed futsal countries, it already proved to be self-sustainable,
meaning that the National Associations does not need to deviate significant
financial resources from football to further develop futsal if the correct policy is
adopted, namely allowing futsal to generate their own profits and allocating a
proportional amount of funds from external national and international
organizations.
Another aspect that should be clear is that futsal development has it’s own
characteristics and needs, most of them quite different from those needed (at this
moment) to develop football at all levels.
Courses for coaches are a very important step to develop futsal. It will allow them to
realize the real characteristics of the game providing tools to fully develop player’s
abilities and capabilities.
Without competitions at all levels it is not possible to significantly develop futsal.
Even the most technically developed players need competition to develop all the
other skills necessary to be an elite player.
Grassroots development is of fundamental importance to achieve the ultimate levels
of performance. Only if players start from the beginning and at an earlier age with
the adequate training sessions, it will be possible to continuously evolve to better
performance levels.
Top elite clubs and National Teams are of fundamental importance to allow the
spread of futsal throughout the country, thus allowing relevant incomes form
marketing and merchandising policies, which should be implemented both at club
and National Association levels.
Referees, being a fundamental part of the game, should have their own futsal
career, with regular futsal refereeing courses.

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A development plan cannot be proposed in generic terms, namely because each and
all countries are different from all others, but generic conceptual issues can be
addressed.
This document proposes a methodology to elaborate a tailor-made and addresses
the main issues that should be handled during the process.
Four phases will be proposed and explained in the following chapters:
ƒ Presentation
ƒ Status Assessment
ƒ Tailor-made Program
ƒ Implementation
Each of this phases should be developed with a close cooperation between AFC and
the involved National Association.

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2 Presentation
Some National Associations have no or reduced background in futsal. An
explanation of the main futsal characteristics’, emphasizing its nature as a full sport
and focusing on the advantages of its implementation should then be foreseen.
At same time, some promotional material will be made available to help the NA to
fully understand futsal and also to guide the promotion of futsal outside the NA.
The overall focus of the presentation lives in the following concepts:
• Introduce the game
• Understand the game
• Strengthening/reinforcement
ƒ Enjoy the game
ƒ Passion / feeling
ƒ Attract
The objective is then “to know, to understand, to be & to live with futsal”.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

Nat.
Teams
PROMOTIONAL STAGE
National
Competitions
Clubs

• Introduce the game

• Understand the game
• Strengthening/reinforcement Regions
ƒ Enjoy the game
ƒ Passion / feeling
ƒ Attract School/Colleges/University
(to know, to understand,
to be & to live with)
Grassroots & Youth

Pyramid of Development

The goals for the introduction of futsal will be defined as:

• Area for secondary focus as entry to football development (encourages good
technique/skill)
• Respond to social demand for the practice of sports and football
• Promote and increase the practice of sports
• Official supervision over the game
• Consolidate a professional management of the game
• Incentivate participation:

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 ƒ Where these forms of the game exist, promote more
ƒ Where these forms do not exist, establish and then promote
• FUTSAL will become the number one indoor sport
The promotional material will include (but not limited to):
• Flyers with a concise presentation of futsal
• Promotional videos
• Championship report Macau 2004
• A detailed powerpoint presentation
• Futsal equipment and facilities description
The objectives for the presentation are:
1. Increase futsal awareness
2. Promote understanding of futsal in its several aspects
3. Guarantee interest in futsal implementation and development
The evaluation of the presentation will be made against the objectives achievement.
It could be important to accelerate the implementation of futsal to also make
presentations to other entities, namely ministry of sports, ministry of education and
Universities with sports classes. This should only be done with the agreement of the
NA.

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3 Status Assessment
To develop a tailor-made program, it is of fundamental importance to know the real
situation of each country concerning all the relevant aspects for the program.
The assessment will focus on the following topics:
• Availability of the NA to develop futsal
• Regulations
• Culture
• Sports practice
• Infrastructure
• School and university curricula
• Clubs
• Referees education
• Coaches education
As a first step a questionnaire will be sent to the NA. This questionnaire should be
detailed enough to be useful, but should not be to difficult to fill neither require a
heavy workload.
The second step will be a visit to the country where meetings with the relevant
entities should be planned. The meetings should be very practical in the sense that,
more than listening presentations, there should be a strong interaction between all
the participants in order to allow AFC officials to realize the real situation and to
feel the availability of all the intervenient to achieve further progress.
Field visits to schools and facilities should also be planned to answer practical issues
of futsal implementation.
The general planning of the visit will be:
• Day 1 – arrival
• Day 2
ƒ Morning – meeting with NA relevant officials, including General
Secretary (1) followed by a meeting with referees and coaches
department (2)
ƒ Afternoon – meeting with representatives of ministry of sports,
ministry of education and universities (3) followed by meetings with
media representatives (4) and potential sponsors (5)
• Day 3
ƒ Morning - visit to sports facilities (6)
ƒ Afternoon – visit to schools and universities, including meeting with
relevant lecturers (7)
• Day 4 – departure
The agenda for the meetings will be the following:
• Meeting (1):

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 ƒ Futsal presentation
ƒ Feedback on presentation
ƒ Questionnaire review
ƒ Regulations / Futsal Committee
ƒ Introduction of futsal – methodology
ƒ Competitions and National Futsal Team
ƒ Open issues
• Meeting (2):
ƒ Futsal presentation
ƒ Feedback on presentation
ƒ Regulations
ƒ Futsal referees instructors
ƒ Futsal referees – introductory courses
ƒ Futsal coaches and instructors – introductory courses
ƒ Open issues
• Meeting (3):
ƒ Futsal presentation
ƒ Feedback on presentation
ƒ Futsal as a popular sport
ƒ Futsal in schools curricula
ƒ Futsal in universities curricula
ƒ Open issues
• Meeting (4):
ƒ Futsal presentation
ƒ Feedback on presentation
ƒ Futsal media coverage
ƒ Open issues
• Meeting (5):
ƒ Futsal presentation
ƒ Feedback on presentation
ƒ Futsal as a marketable product
ƒ Market for futsal products
ƒ Futsal promotion
ƒ Futsal tournaments / competitions
ƒ Open issues
• Meeting / visit (6):
ƒ Should include relevant facilities but also neighborhood facilities
• Meeting / visit (7):
ƒ Futsal presentation
ƒ Feedback on presentation

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 ƒ Futsal as a suitable sport to introduce and practice in schools
ƒ Futsal in sport teacher’s curricula
A report on the visit will be provided.

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4 Tailor-made program
After the assessment a tailor-made program will be proposed to the NA. This
program should be as pragmatic as possible, presenting only feasible proposals. The
discussion with the NA should be as short as possible to avoid unnecessary
postponement of implementation. This means also that it is very important to really
have a commitment on NA on futsal introduction and development.
The program will follow the following strategies:
• Management and administration area
• Development of technical skills of:
ƒ managers
ƒ coaches
ƒ referees
ƒ players
• Training the trainers
• Competition Structure
• Facilities & Equipments
• Finance & Marketing of futsal
• Communication of futsal

4.1 Management & Administration

• Futsal Committee in NA Organization
• Futsal Development resources
• Integration of futsal in the NA’s own Structure:
ƒ Technical Department
ƒ Refereeing Department
ƒ Competition Department
ƒ National Team
ƒ Media & Communication
ƒ Marketing

4.2 Development of Technical Skills

• Players Development
ƒ Grassroots (schools) / Youth / Club
ƒ Talent receive expert coaching / education
• Referee Development
ƒ Referee Education
ƒ Referee Instructors
ƒ Increase the Quality & Quantity

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 • Coaches Development
ƒ Coaches Education
ƒ FUTSAL Curriculum
ƒ Training the trainers/instructors
ƒ Increase the Quality & Quantity
ƒ Qualify coaches among school teachers

4.3 Competition Structure

• Organized National & Regional competitions
• Introduce group age competition
• Players registration
• Main regulations
• Promotion & relegation of teams
• Maintenance of matches records

4.4 Facilities & Equipments

• Utilizing existing facilities (Public, Schools, Colleges, etc)
• Upgrading existing facilities with futsal equipment – balls, removable pitch,
goals
• Providing new equipments

4.5 Finance & Marketing

• Promote futsal as a global product
• Futsal needs:
ƒ Marketing partners
ƒ Television partners
ƒ Event management partners
• Annual Budgeting & auditing

4.6 Agreed Goals

After the program deployment, an agreement with the NA about the goals should
be reached.

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5 Implementation
After the agreement with the NA about the goals has been achieved, an
implementation plan will be proposed.
This plan should establish a viable timeframe and define practical steps on how to
achieve the goals.
Implementation should start as soon as the plan is ready.

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