The era of big data with machine learning, artificial intelligence and algorithms is here. The future is said to be decisions made according to insights from data with its objectivity being superior to human subjectivity.

Sport has not been immune to this spreading ideology. Making decisions on data, from player recruitment to evaluating individual performance, has gained widespread acceptance. This was helped by Moneyball, the book and film starring Brad Pitt, that told the story of how a baseball team used statistical insights to achieve success. Data scientists are now working in top teams.

The truth is, in all the excitement of the potential data promises, its capabilities have been overplayed. It can certainly help improve decisions, but it is not capable of completely eliminating subjectivity nor is human judgement obsolete if we want to make decisions that are effective as possible.

The world is hugely complex, and this is equally true of sport. Even in those with minimal rules and limited choices, like chess, have more possible game iterations than atoms in the observable universe!

Making decisions is about predicting future outcomes, but the environment comprises of so many variables and possible situations. How can we account for such a vastly complicated world that is impossible to fully comprehend?

The truth is we can’t. So, we simplify. We convert the reality of a world of complex systems with interconnections of numerous elements and feedback loops into one based on basic linear cause-and-effect relationships; i.e. changing this here will consistently produce that effect there.

But this comes with a cost. In reducing the complexity we risk losing the nuance and arriving at conclusions that might not provide a true understanding of reality.

In the filtering process we try our best to consider only the relevant data (signal) that impacts the outcome of our decisions and dismiss the irrelevant (noise). However, it is unavoidable that we unintentionally keep irrelevant data and omit some of the relevant.

With the information captured we try to identify patterns to inform us of likely cause-and-effects chains that can be used to guide us in our future decisions and actions. To give a straightforward example, maybe we find a link between having more ball possession and an increased chance of winning.

This belief becomes a useful rule of thumb. We apply these shortcuts to guide us as we go through the world. They aim to reveal underlying truths while preventing us from becoming overwhelmed by having to rigorously assess the best option every time we encounter a new situation.

But they come with the risk that during the process of arriving at these conclusions either the quality of the data inputted wasn’t good enough or the cause-and-effect relationship observed was misjudged and our assumption is false. This type of error is known as a bias.

For the ball possession example, maybe information about the opponent’s tactics were not considered in the model and so having more possession against certain styles of play might have no influence or even make us worse. Or possibly the link between more possession and winning wasn’t causal, one doesn’t directly lead to the other. So, players were encouraged to increase possession, but they stopped making forward passes and the team’s performance deteriorated.

A good example of how we simplify but lose important context is highlighted in the NFL Draft. They assess players through extensive testing that incorporate speed, strength, power, agility, various technical skills, psychometric ability, physical measurements, injury evaluations and cognitive capacity.

Yet it is still consistently very unreliable at identifying who will be successful. In fact, possibly the greatest quarter-back in NFL history was the 199th pick and that only included the players entering the league in one single year (which brings into question those who claim they can identify children that will become elite players but that’s a whole other topic).

The fact is a player’s true playing ability depends on those areas tested and many more,  plus how they all interact with each other. This is the real world of complex systems with interconnectedness of numerous elements that can’t be accurately replicated when simplifying.

The general process of arriving to an assumed cause-and-effect relationship between two things is the same for computers as it is for humans. The difference is a computer uses a database, mathematics and computer processing and humans use memory and the brain’s processing power to subconsciously identify patterns.

Both are very good at giving us a generally accurate picture of how things work but both have biases and subjectivity that occasionally lead to errors. This is because, due to the complexity mentioned earlier, there is always a gap between simplified models of the world and reality.

It is not a case of objective data versus subjective human intuition as is often claimed.

So, if both have biases, which method should be preferred for making decisions? Neither. Instead, they should be used together because their differences can cancel each other out.

When people at a fair guess the number of sweets in a jar, the average of everyone’s guess is usually very close to the actual amount. Randomness means the false information that overestimates is cancelled out, more or less, by the false information that underestimates.  What remains is the information based on true beliefs.

Further, each has different strengths and weaknesses. There is a version of chess called freestyle where players are allowed to use computers. Amateur players with everyday computers won tournaments against the best supercomputers. While computers have the advantage of immense calculation power to explore data for patterns, humans can apply a strategic outlook whilst integrating broad concepts and principles.

There are many fields outside sport that have attempted to rely on exclusively data-based decision making. The initial optimism of better outcomes was misplaced, and it was realised it is essential to incorporate human judgement. Examples include court judges deciding whether suspected criminals should be awarded bail after assessing the chances they will reoffend or pathologists who try to identify whether human tissue is cancerous or not.

The push for decisions based only on data suggests this lesson is yet to be learned in sport. The simplification from the real world means the utopian ideal of perfectly accurate decisions are unattainable but using a hybrid method will get us as close as possible.

At a time when it is popular to adopt dogmatic positions on the extremes, in this case either having an old school and out of touch approach or a numbers geek that doesn’t understand the game, there needs to be some balance. Truth often lies in the less glamorous position, nearer the middle of the continuum.

In sport, just as in life, the approach we choose to take is determined by our beliefs about the relationships that exist in the world. If we take this action, we’ll get this result. In recent years the increased capabilities of computers and data collection has provided us with a new tool that can help us arrive at better conclusions and decisions. But it would be foolish to discount the value of human intuition, a tool that has evolved over millions of years for the same objective.

(This article is reproduced directly from DougReedFutsal.com with the permission of the author)

A lack of interest leads to a lack of revenues which means there is an inability to attract professional management to the sport. This creates a negative loop as the expertise isn’t there to identify and execute strategies to attract more fans.

Recognising this, sport industry leaders were interviewed to gain their opinions on the approach that should be applied by sports competitions, in particular those in futsal, to generate fan interest. They were either sport marketers (SM) or competition organisers (CO).

Those approached had diverse profiles to ensure a wide range of perspectives. Several had experience of some of the world’s most popular sport competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, The Olympics and the Indian Premier League. Others had achieved success building competitions from more niche sports.

There were experts who had little knowledge of futsal but also those who are some of the most experienced futsal practitioners. An example is Javier Lozano, The President of the LNFS, who kindly supported the project by agreeing to be interviewed. All the interviewees responses are anonymous which enabled them to be more forthright in their opinions.

Whilst not a comprehensive analysis, it provides an insightful summary into some of the key factors for success that futsal competitions would be advised to consider. Interestingly, in some areas their opinions contrast with the general consensus within the sport.

Be Distinctive

Several of the interviewees said the first step to generating interest was to research the market and define a specific target audience. Sports Marketer 3 (SM3) discussed this and proposed who they would aim futsal at;

“I think you have to be really strategic about your approach because you can’t become everything to everyone…For me, when I think of futsal, I think skills, I just think ridiculous goals… for me it is a great example of where you can extract clips and really package it together that’s relevant and interesting for the next generation.”

The literature review had highlighted that shorter formats of traditional sports attracted younger audiences. SM2 was another who suggested targeting a younger demographic;

“I think you just have to hype it up from a brand proposition, the excitement, it is fast-paced, probably for a more youthful audience.”

And SM4 mentioned families and those that participate in small-sided football, implying an underlying link between participation and spectator interest if they are connected as research has demonstrated.

“One is get families engaged as it’s an easy way for them to consume a football type product. Then, connected to that, is you’ve probably got more people in the world playing small sided football than 11-a-side football. So if you can connect those two and go actually we’re more for everyone than football then you’ve got a really, really strong opportunity of building a property.”

A similar response was given by SM5 highlighting the opportunity if the high numbers playing small-sided football in some regions could be converted into futsal fans;

“I don’t know how many tens of thousands of people or more play 5-a-side on a weekly basis in [England]. That’s a massive audience, getting out to those guys and saying there is an elite game happening around the corner.”

SM4 suggested a way to gain the interest of those playing small sided football;

“Once you’ve gone beyond creating that event is how do you cascade it down? Can you create a bottom up event? You have a global futsal league or a national futsal league or a regional futsal league. The guys who are playing it week in, week out, who might be playing 5-a-side at the moment. I think this is where you look to. How do I get all my 5-a-side players to move from 5-a-side to play futsal? I think what we would traditionally call a grassroots level, that would be my approach.”

When asked directly on the connection between participation and generating interest in elite competitions, the responses were mixed. Some, such as Competition Organiser 3 (CO3), see it as essential;

“If you don’t have people that play, it’s difficult that there will be people interested.”

But others such as SM1 view it as helpful but not essential to drive interest;

“I think participation, maybe it does have an impact, but it depends on the sport. Meaning the couch potato doesn’t play any sport, right? And the couch potato is the backbone of the television business.”

Forming a brand to attract the chosen audience was highlighted as key which is interesting in the context of the earlier discussion of futsal’s identity being overshadowed by football. Here, SM3 mentions that alongside having a story;

“in terms of interest and fan loyalty it comes down to building a brand and being very clear what your story and proposition is and what you stand for and being very consistent with that.”

SM5 attributed the current lack of interest in futsal to the brand identity as had been suggested earlier;

“I think it’s almost a brand issue”

SM3 discussed what brand strategy could be effective for futsal focusing on uniqueness;

“What’s your unique proposition, your unique selling point? The fact that it’s a fast-paced, skilful game with lots of goals and it could almost have an urban and lifestyle DNA embedded into it.”

CO3 was among several that mentioned the requirement to create a brand that is truly distinctive;

“the brand is everything in my view because this is what captures attention. This is what shows the creativity or the originality of your product.”

CO1 illustrated this through twenty20 cricket which the literature review identified as comparable to futsal;

“Twenty20 cricket doesn’t look the same as test match cricket, doesn’t mean one is right and one is wrong, it just means they’re different. The important thing is they’re clearly distinct, people know what they’re going to get when they go there.”

Relationship with Football

The relationship with football was discussed by all the respondents. Firstly, SM5 mentioned football in relation to the target audience;

“[Your target audience] won’t be your 35 plus, male football fans because they’re already doing something else. So who is it then?…You can’t compete with Premier League football… But there are a lot of people that aren’t watching Premier League week in, week out and there are Premier League fans that want more football.”

There was a consensus that the association is beneficial, but futsal must be careful in how it impacts on the distinctiveness aspect. The view was that it was especially useful in the early stages to capture fans’ attention before the audience becomes more educated and aware of what futsal is as CO2 explains;

“I think it comes in another question whether to bundle it with big football, with a big brother. It can help you but it can also put you in the shade. Basically, it is showing a bit of a lack of identity in a way… I still think football can really put us under the spotlight until some point but this is only half of the message. The futsal world in itself can be in the spotlight by its own and without Neymar or anyone saying this is cool.”

SM1 offered a similar opinion having experience of organising a futsal competition that included famous former players from the 11-a-side game;

“I think when you launch it would be of some advantage to use football as a type of reference point. We used football celebrities to promote futsal and it worked… so if I was doing it the second year I wouldn’t need to say anything about football. I would say come and watch for futsal, it’s a dazzling new game. So when launching it I would need to piggyback on football and later on I will get onto a distinct identity.”

Should futsal use football to promote itself?SM2 highlighted the opportunity to engage current fans of men’s football in the context of women’s football, which has experience of the challenge of utilising the association or being more distinctive;

“I think the latest insight shows that 80% of the country had some sort of interest in football. Whether that be attending or loosely following, they are showing interest at 80% and there’s no other sport that captures that. So instantly you’ve got 80% of the country interested in what you’re doing just because of the game… but at the same time [women’s football] do need to have a form of differentiation.”

Several responses emphasised the need to get the appropriate balance between opportunity to engage a large market but still communicating that futsal’s offers something different as SM3 discusses here;

“I don’t know what the answer is but there is a sweet spot in the balance between riding the popularity in the fact that football is the number one sport in the world versus distinguishing yourself as something which is very different.”

Futsal may want to position itself as a distinct football alternative to replicate the success of twenty20 which did this for cricket fans, becoming their most popular format.

Three of the respondents gave the example of Coca-Cola’s similar approach in the consumer-packaged goods market with their different offerings. Here is CO3’s take which relates back to the point of being distinctive;

“Football is Coca-Cola, the main product and the one that makes the most money. However, Coca-Cola also has other products to conquer other very important market niches. For that reason, they created Zero, Light, Fanta, Powerade etc. These latter products would be futsal and belong to the same brand but with different characteristics, different audiences and their own objectives. Another market and another business but maintain the same essence; satisfy different needs, different presentation, different taste and different business.”

This comparison illustrates how new entrants, i.e. futsal, can help the related incumbent, i.e. football, grow as has been seen in cricket, rugby union and basketball. SM4 talked in detail about how to create the distinction in practice and brought up the topic of futsal clubs representing well-known football clubs;

“For me it’s not clear, futsal tries to look like football and futsal isn’t football. For me, futsal isn’t football. So, whilst you guys try to look like football, you’re on a hiding to nothing. You’re just going to get people going that’s not proper football…It is very easy to go I’m going to create a Manchester United futsal team and an Arsenal futsal team.

I think that’s probably a good way of doing it as you get instant traction but if it’s just seen as being guys just not good enough to get in Manchester United football team and that’s why they’re playing futsal. They need to look different….My Arsenal futsal strip would be very different to my Arsenal football strip…You have got to make a decision of if you’re going to go into Arsenal and Man Utd, you are going to shadow the football clubs, then you need to be even more distinct in your visual appearance and how you play the game.”

When the topic of futsal teams using the football club brands to generate interest in the sport was brought up there were differing opinions with CO3 seeing it positively, speaking about the increased promotion and exposure FC Barcelona’s futsal team offers. SM5 shared a similar opinion;

“I think it’s a good thing (using football brands). Your issue now is probably just a lack of branding and awareness…They’re some of the biggest brands in the world.”

However, others saw this merger less favourably such as SM3;

“I wouldn’t go too far to the point where, to answer your last question, I don’t think I would necessarily have a Manchester United Futsal Club or FC Barcelona Futsal Club. I think it would be great to see teams from these iconic cities like Manchester and Barcelona and let’s say Milan for sake of argument. But I think they should be positioned as something completely different. I really do.”

SM1 cautioned about it being positive short-term but negative in the long-term. The idea about futsal being neglected when an organisation’s ultimate concern is related to football was hinted at.

“It will be an easy way of starting off but somehow I think Manchester United will never treat the futsal team with the same respect they treat their football team but to start off it would be a great way to start. Taking a long-term perspective, I wouldn’t go with the existing football brands. It will always be seen as a second to that.”

SM2 spoke about their experience of football clubs creating women’s teams and how they’re trying to transfer that existing loyalty from the men’s teams over to the women’s. They recognised that this had been challenging;

“I think building individual loyalty on the women’s game is something we’re trying to do at the moment, but it hasn’t necessarily happened at the moment yet. We’re seeing a lot of people coming for 1 or 2 games but they’re not becoming regular ticket buyers or they’re not buying season tickets so there’s a lot more work we need to do, at the moment, in building that loyalty.”

In summary, the respondents all agree a balance is needed in the association with football but there is debate as to where the optimal balance lies for the benefit of futsal.

Fan Experience

Several of the respondents mentioned creating a good fan experience with entertainment and the advantages an indoor environment brings such as these comments by SM1;

“I thought [futsal] would provide a good spectator experience which football cannot give such a great experience as it’s not in a closed environment.”

SM4 reiterated this and spoke about fans being active participants which has been identified as helping to build fan relationships, identity and loyalty;

“So, if I go my core focus is on families and why does that work because its indoor, warm and it’s a safe environment versus outdoor, cold and relatively unsafe environment… I start to have people carrying out entertainment activities whilst they’re there so that can be a whole host of things. I can also have them doing educational activities there which is teaching them what it means and how to play futsal. So, a game isn’t 2 hours in the afternoon, a game is actually a 4 hour visit that you go and have in which you’re doing a lot of other activities as well because you’re taking over a specific venue. You can’t let kids run on the pitch at [a football stadium] but there’s nothing wrong with kids running around on the pitch in a futsal environment.”

CO2 and SM3 referenced the fan experience in the NBA where there is lots of ancillary entertainment and theatre in addition to the sporting action;

“You can go very much of the wild way like they do in the NBA or these indoor top events… Let’s be creative, let’s do crazy things. Something that brings added value to a product because the game is great, no doubt, but it would be even greater with crazy things.”

“I think in futsal, I don’t know why, but I just feel with the nature of the sport, in the way it’s structured, the way it’s played inside an arena as well. I just feel like you could do so much more where is in football we would love to do more of what the NBA is doing.”

SM1 spoke about the priority of attracting fans to arenas in order to attract broadcasters and sponsors;

“Even for TV you need to see a full stadium. An enthusiastic noisy crowd. The spectators are important.”

A couple of those interviewed mentioned the opportunity to be innovative with futsal, again offering the opportunity to be distinctive from football, as evidenced by these comments by SM5 and SM3;

“The men’s game (football) is almost cursed because try to change the men’s game, you can’t. Even things like the NFL. It is commercialising and adding all this added spectacle that would get booed off…The opportunity with futsal is do whatever you want because there are no expectations.”

“I think with a sport like futsal, where I would see a huge opportunity, you could be bold and you can do things that in traditional football you wouldn’t be able to get away with just because of the nature of the stadium, the format of the competitions and so forth. I really think you can think outside of the box and push the limits. And I also think you need to, to differentiate from other traditional sports because personally I wouldn’t see futsal as a traditional sport. I would actually see it as something different and unique.”

The importance of engaging with fans who don’t attend games through digital media was highlighted by several of the practitioners including SM3;

“if you look at who the next generation is following, it is not your traditional BT or Sky Sports or ESPN in the US. It’s platforms like Bleacher Report, like Copa90, House of Highlights [all online] and the way they approach different sports is completely different to the way you and I grew up following these sports and that’s where I think futsal could stand out…the reality is that [game attendees] are only a small percentage of your fan base because there is only so many people who can have the chance to come to a live sporting event. So, I would actually say it’s the people who are consuming your content online who are the priority.”

SM5 also spoke about the importance of engaging content as well as fan interaction;

“If you don’t have unique, exclusive content that fans can watch, get behind and take part in in their everyday life, you’re not really competing…how I can actually engage with it, take part in it, vote, have my opinion heard, hear back from the players. How can you take part in this sport in a greater way than just physically going to watch and content is the number 1?”

SM1 spoke about promoting the individual stars, as the literature review identified, through social media to build interest in a competition;

“One case study in sports is the UFC. The UFC started MMA in United States. They started off brilliantly. They used social media so well to build up the personalities who were playing. They really did it very well… So I think the key is to use social media to build the tournament but the tournament also is only composed of stars. So you need to create the personalities and the fan following and all of that in advance of the actual tournament. Social media is the key to that.”

The Potential For Futsal

Overall, the interviewees projected a very positive outlook for futsal’s future such as SM5 here;

“There’s massive potential. If you look at it from a participation perspective its where it’s at. If you look at other sports, these smaller formats are where it’s winning at the moment…It’s not rocket science, it can actually be a success.”

CO2 is responsible for a futsal competition and spoke of the need for investment to reach its potential;

“It’s a circle basically so it would just need some clever investment injected into the game, into the segments of the game which make the product more sellable to fans, more sellable to TV, more attractive because of the technology…from there you will have more media, you will have more fans, you will have more viewers on TV. And if you have more viewers on TV, you have more adverts on TV and more money flowing and it grows like this until it reaches the sky like football.”

Even with little investment, CO2 has witnessed the sports upward trajectory;

“When you see the growth of the game and with the means that we have had, human resources or financial resources, the growth is just amazing over the last 15 years… it can be the biggest indoor sport in the world.”

SM4, who has never worked in futsal but has worked on one of the world’s most valuable football competitions, was even more ambitious for the sport;

“There is no reason why futsal can’t be bigger in either participation or viewing figures than football if you target the right audience, you go after families, and you make much more of an engaging product, you can easily do that. You have got a massive opportunity .”

(This article is reproduced directly from DougReedFutsal.com with the permission of the author)

The career opportunities for aspiring futsal players are limited with few professional futsal leagues and teams. Even the best leagues in the world feature players who are not full-time and far too frequently clubs suffer financial problems with salaries left unpaid.

Overall, the sport is still heavily underdeveloped, causing many to miss out on experiencing this wonderful game. Currently, it is very dependent on the limited support that can be leveraged from football and generated by its lucrative competitions. With that comes the inevitable obligation for futsal to help service the interests of football rather than a complete focus on its own needs.

Further, there isn’t a strong, or at least accurate, identity for the game in many places as I have written about previously here. This is the case in England where many possess a vague idea of futsal as some form of football development tool or exhibition platform for skills and nutmegs. The majority of people would love this sport but this false perception doesn’t provide inspiration to discover more about it.

These three problems stem from a lack of interest in the elite game. If it was able to attract a significant audience then this would generate revenues through match attendances, broadcasts and sponsorship. These revenues would be distributed to players, increasing the number of professional careers available, and to the sport’s development. Further the exposure to futsal competitions would promote an understanding of what the game truly is.

So how do we develop futsal competitions to generate more interest in them?

Research Project

Over the last year I have been dedicated to answering this question through an extensive research project, completely self-funded, for my recently concluded UEFA Masters. Although the full report is not currently publicly available, I would like to share a couple of extracts that I hope will be of interest to the futsal community.

To discover the answer, the first task was to find out why this hasn’t happened until now withFIFA acknowledging “the development of futsal competitions and leagues for both men and women around the world is still in its formative stage”.

Here in Part 1 I present the findings from my investigation into the reasons futsal competitions are in their current state. Part 2 offers the highlights from interviews into how to develop sport competitions, and in particular those in futsal, that I conducted with leading sport industry professionals from across the world.

Note that as this was a submission for my masters, it is written in a more academic way than my usual posts. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Part 1

Historical Background

“Far from being a simple derivative of football played indoors, futsal was devised as a whole new sport, taking inspiration from basketball (as regards the number of players), handball (as regards the pitch), water polo (as regards the role of the referee) and, of course, football.” (UEFA, 2017)

Futsal’s first world championships in 1982, when the sport was still known as indoor football, were hugely popular with fans in host city Sao Paulo. It was organised by the then only international governing body for futsal, FIFUSA. The beginning of rapid growth caught the attention of FIFA and they created their own version of indoor football inspired by FIFUSA’s.

FIFA tried to stop the use of the word football by FIFUSA (since reformed as AMF) through legal means but were unsuccessful. In any case, FIFUSA started using the name futsal, an abbreviation of the Portuguese for indoor football, at their next world championships.

Ironically, FIFA later adopted the term futsal and it was first used at their World Cup in 1996. The two organisations held discussions about unifying but they failed to reach agreement. Both continue as independent entities today governing different versions of futsal.

The competition for FIFA’s futsal from AMF’s is limited as many of those involved in the latter were persuaded to switch over to FIFA’s alternative. Its popularity is confined to certain regions and there are no professional competitions.

Other rivalry comes from the many regional small-sided football variants that share a resemblance with futsal and became popular before FIFA established its own futsal around the world. They have even had competitions that attracted TV audiences of millions and game attendances of tens of thousands in countries such as Australia, England, Germany and USA. These no longer continue and only in the USA is there an indoor soccer league that claims to be professional.

These small-sided football variants remain very popular to play recreationally in certain geographical areas. For example, a few years ago in England 10 times the number were playing some form of small-sided football compared to futsal, though this may be overstated as futsal participation data is often not recorded.

The power of FIFA, which describes futsal as its only officially recognised “small-sided football format”, with its network of members, established governance structures and the prominence attained through football has seen its futsal gain increasingly global coverage.

Increasing Numbers Playing

There was an 18% increase in the number of FIFA’s members associations playing the sport between 2006 and 2012 and there has been a further 13% increase according to the latest figures. During the same decade the number of people playing futsal worldwide doubled, compared to an increase of 13% for football. FIFA claim that it “is the fastest growing indoor sport in the world” with 60 million registered players worldwide.

Research has found strong evidence for links between playing and being a fan of a sport. A survey by sports consultancy Winners found those currently playing football spend over six times more on attending games than those that have never played and over twice more than those that used to play. Even having a child that plays football results in consuming the sport to similar levels of those that were playing or had played.

However, the popularity of playing futsal is not translating effectively into interest into watching the game. For example, in Spain, there are 2 million sport participants playing futsal but the average attendance for the top league is between 2500 to 3000 thousand.

Two possible explanations that are contributing to this situation are proposed. One is that futsal’s introduction has been relatively recent in some regions, and mainly through youth participation, so there will be a delay before the growth translates into fan interest. However, this could not be applied to the case in Spain.

Another is the link between participation and fandom is disrupted by the elite game of recreational futsal being perceived to be football.

Futsal & Football

The characteristics of futsal make it susceptible to being positioned as an understudy to football. Firstly, through being a more accessible way to participate in football as it has similar rules but requires fewer players, less space and is playable in any weather or climate. The other reason is the more challenging conditions than football, due to the reduced space and quicker surface, mean it is utilised to develop football players.

The latter role as a football player development tool has been promoted in the media who, with the strong demand for football coverage, present futsal through the lens of football. There have been numerous articles taking this angle and featuring renowned football stars who discuss how futsal helped them.

FIFA predominantly regards futsal in relation to football. It offers its members across the globe a document entitled “Futsal’s Development Programmes and Guidelines”. Within its pages it describes futsal as “first and foremost a game in its own right” but in the following sentence as “the football game of choice for many” and later in the same document as a “variation of football”, a “format of football”, “a player development tool and a game in its own right”, a “form of indoor small-sided football”, a “variation of football” and a “football discipline”.

Inevitably, this approach has trickled down to its members worldwide. The FA Benefits of Futsaldocument states “FIFA, UEFA and The FA are keen to support the development of futsal for a number of reasons, but primarily for the recognised benefits that futsal offers for the technical development of football players”.

Rather than having its own sport development pyramid with a connected thread from recreational to elite level, futsal has been positioned at the base of the football pyramid. It can be expected that football will have reaped much of the benefit from the growing futsal participation and the demonstrated link between playing a sport and being a fan of it.

This positioning of futsal has shaped a public perception of futsal as a recreational game or skill development activity, undoubtedly causing severe damage to its attractiveness as an entertainment product. The optimistic start with the popularity of the first World Cup nearly 40 years ago and the current strong participation numbers have not led to the significant fan interest that would be anticipated.

The next section investigates the potential market for futsal competitions that is not currently being exploited.

Market For Futsal Competitions

With the lack of publicly available market research on futsal, the potential for its competitions will be estimated by examining the introduction of the short-formats of several major team sports. This is felt relevant as futsal has been described as a shorter-format of football.

It is a “shorter, faster, indoor and more exciting variant of football” according to The Financial Express, The FA describe it as an “exciting, fast-paced small sided football game” and Sky Sportsas football’s “entertaining little brother”.

Basketball, cricket and rugby union were chosen as they are all hugely popular team sports like football and their new formats emerged from games that were popular recreationally like futsal.

They have all experienced rapid success. FIBA only began organising 3×3 basketball competitions in 2010 but its rapid rise will mean it will debut just ten years later at the 2020 Olympics. Similarly, the popularity of rugby sevens, with its first major annual tournament in 1999, led to its inclusion in the 2016 Olympics. This added 30 million rugby union fans, around 10% of the total global number. The 2016-2017 World Rugby Sevens grew its cumulative attendance by 10%on the previous year to a record of just under three quarters of a million.

Twenty20 has become the most popular format of cricket with the over 1 billion existing fans within fifteen years of its first professional competition. Twenty20’s Indian Premier League (IPL) was estimated to be worth $4.1 billion just a few years after its formation. The similarity between twenty20 cricket and futsal has been identified multiple times, including by one of the executives that conceived and designed the IPL and commented;

“I saw in futsal a potential to do what the IPL had done to conventional cricket. This sport, for all its flamboyance and far more use of ball control and technique, hasn’t really got the attention that it deserves and I thought there was a definite proposition for the Indian audience.”

All three of these short formats have been found to engage existing and new audiences to their sports, notably among youth and female demographics. Similarly, a futsal tournament held in India in 2016 was also found to be popular with a female audience.

The Lack Development Of Futsal Competitions

The success for the governing bodies of these new games in cricket and rugby union is highlighted by the fact they are now developing newer and even shorter formats, the latter creating an indoor 5-a-side version. From this a key question emerges.

Why have these sports invested in developing competitions and leagues of their shorter-format versions, which have succeeded in their own right and grown their sports as a whole, while the majority of football governing bodies have not? FThe development of futsal competitions “is still in its formative stage” in the opinion of FIFA.

The likely reason is they developed them because of a strong need for solutions to grow their sports. Cricket faced falling attendances and dwindling interest in the sport when twenty20 was identified as the solution in research by The English Cricket Board. FIBA embraced 3×3 basketball to achieve its vision “to make basketball the most popular sports community in the world” .

World Rugby had the aim to increase the global spread of rugby union. The chairman of the International Rugby Board commented after the first ever World Rugby Series, ”this competition has set in place another important element in the IRB’s drive to establish rugby as a truly global sport”. As well as the additional 30 million fans from the 2016 Olympics, research shows rugby sevens has promoted the sport in previously untapped and emerging markets.

In contrast, football has been riding a wave of sustained success with soaring revenues in the whole time since it governed futsal. Between 1978 and 2014, FIFA’s annual revenues grew from $10 million to an astonishing $1.9 billion. The UEFA European Championships revenues were €41 million in 1992 and by 2016 had reached over €1.9 billion. This leaves little incentive for the governing bodies to look at other avenues for growth when this is being provided at unprecedented rates through their football offering.

So instead of seeing it as something that can attract fans in its own right and increase the numbers following the associated game, in this case football, as has occurred in these other sports, the impression as an understudy has endured. That is, as a development tool or more accessible version for football. Already it is clear there is a strong explanation for the lack of development of futsal competitions but there is a further substantial motive.

This is that it has been considered a rival to football. UEFA cites this in the case of the lack of support shown in Europe. They contend that “futsal had long been the subject of misconceptions, often being considered in opposition to football and regarded as competing with its ‘big brother’. That explains why it was neglected for so long in Europe – a continent where football’s power is absolute. That perception has changed significantly in recent years, with the European approach to futsal now mirroring that seen on the other side of the Atlantic, where it has always been regarded as an excellent player development tool.”

The evidence suggests these fears are unfounded. Rugby union, cricket and basketball developed their new games in order that their traditional formats would gain rather than lose fans. This has been proven in the case of rugby sevens presence at The Olympics which increased the overall number of rugby union fans.

In cricket, the international governing body has also had a similar concern to those in football. The Guardian reported that The International Cricket Council want to regulate the explosive growth of the twenty20 version to protect the traditional format. The evidence doesn’t support this perspective.

Research found that the introduction of a twenty20 competition in England and Wales had increased domestic demand for cricket attendance overall and did not lead to reduced stadium attendances for the traditional format. This has added significance when it is considered that the previous decline of those attendances was the reason twenty20 was introduced.

It is easy to understand why holding this perspective, despite it appearing to be unfounded, would provide a compelling incentive to avoid the development of futsal competitions. Those football equivalents that are generating huge and growing revenues principally fund the governing bodies’ activities. It can be assumed they would wish to protect against anything that is a perceived threat to this.

In the statement UEFA claim that the perception has changed significantly from being a rival to being an “excellent player development tool”. This could be viewed as progress, but it still doesn’t provide a convincing reason to end the neglect of futsal at the elite level.

Support for futsal only as a way to develop better football players reinforces the view that the football authorities still only see futsal in terms of how it can benefit football. Developing higher skilled football players would be expected to increase the attractiveness, and hence the value of, football competitions.

Correlation Between Independence And Success

The observation that the most successful futsal leagues have organisational and governance structures where there is some independence from the football governing bodies conforms with the idea that direct control by these authorities may be hindering futsal competitions development. This may encourage better strategic focus as there is a duty to develop a futsal competition as the ultimate objective, rather than how it can benefit football. These leagues are in Brazil, Russia and Spain and have generated enough interest to claim professional status.

Before going into further detail, it must be understood and clear that the time the sport has had to establish itself in those countries is likely one of the contextual reasons to explain their success. Whether there is a causal relationship between autonomy in decision making and success can’t be tested robustly due to an insufficient amount of competitions.

The LNFS in Spain, the world’s most popular league alongside Brazil, has an organisational structure responsible solely for futsal and was formed before FIFA and its members’ involvement in the sport. The Spanish league is run by an organisation that is an association of clubs that has an arms-length relationship with the national football federation, the RFEF, from which it receives no funding. Even within the RFEF there is a separate body that has sole responsibility for futsal. It can be observed that the structures in the professional leagues and federations in Brazil and Russia are similar to Spain.

Outside of these leagues, the other competition success story is the UEFA Futsal Euro, the European championships for nations. The last edition increased revenues by over 200% to more than €650,000, with a TV audience of over 30 million and attendance of over 100,000 cumulatively across the 10 match days.

The UEFA Futsal Euro is unique in the fact that it benefits from the structure within UEFA. It is organised by its wholly owned subsidiary, UEFA Events SA, which also organises all its football competitions. The futsal competition is supported by the same world class expertise and procedures that are standard for some of the biggest sport events in the world and the investment that is made to capitalise on these.

The impact on perceptions from producing a successful futsal competition may explain UEFA’s recent statements on futsal that offer a contrast to those of other governing bodies. It has described it as “a sport in its own right, it’s growing all around the world… and its competitions are constantly gaining in stature” and “a truly international phenomenon”.

With this reformed opinion has come expansion and development of its futsal competition portfolio in response to “the strong growth in demand in Europe” with new male youth and female competitions and the rebranded UEFA Futsal Champions League.

This extract has highlighted the current identity of futsal and how this impacts the interest in the highest level. The sports of basketball, rugby union and cricket have launched competitions of shorter games of their traditional formats that share similarities to futsal with rapid success.

The combined fanbases of these three sports are approximately the same as football’s, indicating an even bigger opportunity for futsal. However, during an incredible and sustained period of growth for football, futsal has been overlooked.

If this opportunity is to be exploited, what do futsal competitions need to do?

Look out for Part 2 coming soon with the opinions of leading sport industry professionals on how futsal competitions should be developed.

As well as insights, knowledge sharing and discussions from the speakers, it is a chance to connect with key decision makers and like-minded people from the futsal community and sports industry who will all assemble to help shape the future of the sport

Speakers​

Owen Laverty (Ear to The Ground) – The Growing Audience For Futsal (more info)

​Ian Bateman (The FA) – Futsal in Pro Football & FA National Futsal Strategy (more info)​

Fiona Green (Winners) – How to Grow Participation, Audience & Sponsorship (more info)​

Stephen Brown (Rugby League World Cup 2021) – A Plan For Futsal Events (more info)

Kevin Routledge (Leicester Arena/Leiceter Riders) – Building Your Own Arena/Lessons from British Basketball (more info)

​Laura Malcolm (Manchester Thunder) – Developing An Elite Player Performance Programme (more info)​
Workshops​

MyCujoo – How To Benefit From Your Futsal Content & Matches (more info)

Manchester FA – How To Grow Futsal With Your Local FA (more info)

Futsal Arenas – Cost-Effective Futsal Facilities & Funding (more info)

Jeff McCarthy (Manchester Metropolitan University) – Digital Marketing in Elite Sports (more info)

Richard Moore (Sport Industry Research Centre) – Establishing A Sport in Schools (more info soon)

Here are a couple of comments that have been said on the conference;

Mico Martic (FIFA & UEFA Instructor) – “The Futsal Insights conference will offer tremendous ideas on how to build the whole futsal environment. It is a chance to meet friends from all around the world and listen to experts that will make us all better. Futsal is here!”
Caj Sohal (Head of Sport – Channel 5) – “Futsal has a huge untapped potential for spectators and TV audiences alike. The Futsal Insights Conference 2019 is a crucial initiative in accelerating the growth of the game and helping it achieve its full potential.”

Marcos Sorato (Brazil World Cup Winning Coach 2012) – “This is a great event for our futsal!”
The only event of its kind worldwide where you gain expertise and network to create a vision for futsal and learn the tools to make that vision a reality.
If you want to be part of the growing futsal movement then reserve your place from £60 (inc. lunch buffet & coffee break refreshments) at www.FutsalInsights.com

Don’t Miss The Opportunity To Be Part Of The #FutsalMovement!

Speakers​

Owen Laverty (Ear to The Ground) – The Growing Audience For Futsal (more info)

​Ian Bateman (The FA) – Futsal in Pro Football & FA National Futsal Strategy (more info)​

Fiona Green (Winners) – How to Grow Participation, Audience & Sponsorship (more info)​

Stephen Brown (Rugby League World Cup 2021) – A Plan For Futsal Events (more info)

Kevin Routledge (Leicester Arena/Leiceter Riders) – Building Your Own Arena/Lessons from British Basketball (more info)

​Laura Malcolm (Manchester Thunder) – Developing An Elite Player Performance Programme (more info)​
Workshops​

MyCujoo – How To Benefit From Your Futsal Content & Matches (more info)

Manchester FA – How To Grow Futsal With Your Local FA (more info)

Futsal Arenas – Cost-Effective Futsal Facilities & Funding (more info)

Jeff McCarthy (Manchester Metropolitan University) – Digital Marketing in Elite Sports (more info)

Richard Moore (Sport Industry Research Centre) – Establishing A Sport in Schools (more info soon)

It was one of the biggest games of their season and they had lost. The coach was furious. He had been screaming at his players, not to mention the referees, throughout the game. Now he was giving his players a dressing down after the final whistle.

No player dared respond, the coach was the authority, instead they were slumped, shoulders hunched over and their heads hanging in shame. Maybe the coach thought they had been too fragile and this would toughen them up, or at least establish those that could handle the pressure and those that just would never be good enough. It was a day to forget for this team of under 10s.

This was a real situation I encountered at a youth tournament a few years ago. I was saddened by the fact this game that should be bringing joy to those players’ lives and providing amazing memories, as it has for me, was being exploited and having the opposite effect. As youth futsal grows, witnessing similar situations is becoming more common.

Coaching Philosophy

This coaching approach is based on two misguided beliefs. The first is that the youth coach’s primary role is developing players’ abilities. This is a key objective, but it certainly isn’t the most important. The fundamental responsibility of a youth coach is to provide a positive experience with the outcome that it increases the players’ love of the game.

“Never be a child’s last coach” is a phrase used by USA Volleyball’s John Kessel and he recommends one way of evaluating your coaching should be seeing how many kids play that sport again the following season. I would question any youth coach who disregards prioritising players’ enjoyment, is it more of a success to develop a player who goes on to be a professional or a person that grows a love for the game that results in futsal being a sustained positive element throughout their life?

Maybe you inspire them to become a coach themselves, having a multiplier effect on the people able to enjoy the game. At best, 99% of the players you coach won’t have a professional playing career so why focus on catering for the 1%?

Fun is the essence of futsal’s existence. Sports are about play, they are games. They became popular long before they offered careers, solely for the intrinsic pleasure they deliver. Fun is maximised when there is intrinsic motivation to do an activity for the pleasure it provides in itself and you are so engrossed, you become lost in the moment.

Becoming a professional is often way back on the reasons why children want to participate but this focus on reaching the top can be imposed early on youngsters by the adults that surround them. Children should be allowed to arrive at their own ambition to reach the professional ranks because they want a life doing what they enjoy rather than to meet the wishes of others. Pure enjoyment in an activity is impossible when it is all about a future outcome fueled by a desire to please others.

Ignoring this first reason to reject this joyless and hard-line type of coaching is a second, based on a false belief that serious environments where criticism is delivered harshly rather than constructively are optimal for player development and team performance.

This is a common misconception shared at both youth and elite level. An enjoyable environment makes a player, regardless of age, have increased motivation, confidence and ability to perform at their best and improve. As legendary futsal coach Zego, who helped develop 6-time Best Player of the World Ricardinho, says “The child that leaves training happy, learns.”

To instill fun doesn’t compromise the possibilities of becoming a professional but rather increases the likelihood. You need a passion for a sport to be able to dedicate the time to work on your game required to reach the top. Mia Haam, one of the most successful footballers ever, recognised “To be a great soccer player, you must be in love with the game.”

Many acknowledge that playing in the street with friends is one of the best settings for developing as a player. In the streets there is no coach shouting instructions and verbally scolding errors but there is the characteristics of self-discovery, freedom, fun and fierce competitiveness. The environment coaches create should still be challenging and demanding as these are essential elements for enjoyment as well as helping prepare children to be successful and resilient in their futures, whether in or outside the game.

Whenever I am not performing at my best and feeling frustrated or lacking a bit of confidence, I find refocusing on just enjoying playing, not concerning myself with doing well or avoiding mistakes, to be an effective strategy to quickly get back on track.

Having fun is sometimes viewed as incompatible with possessing a winning mentality. More likely, enjoying what you do helps prevent the stress and pressure of high level competition having a negative impact on performance. Did competing with a smile like Usain Bolt, Ricardinho or Steph Curry help or hinder the incredible success they’ve had? In an article on this subject former England International cricketer Ed Smith wrote “If you’re really serious about winning, I eventually realised, you should adopt an equally serious commitment to play.”

The Culture of Youth Futsal

The professional game in futsal is still niche which means, until now, at youth level there hasn’t been too much pressure and focus forced upon youngsters towards reaching the top. This has resulted in a very positive and welcoming culture created by coaches who are motivated by passion rather than personal career development.

However, as the elite game grows and futsal is increasingly adopted to help youngsters in their aim of becoming professional footballers, it is at risk of being unable to resist the toxic cultures you see in other youth sports where everything is centered around elite success.

An example is the highly competitive world of elite football where we witness cases of children treated like inputs in a mass production conveyor belt and any considered “not up to standard” are swiftly and ruthlessly discarded, being treated as mini professionals rather than developing and fragile individuals. Former Chelsea youth player Zac McEachran, who never reached the professional game, discussed his youth football experience;

“I was at Chelsea from under-8s. It was four times a week, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, so it takes up your whole weekend. You do love football but sometimes it’s a lot to ask – you’ve got to be dedicated from a young age. I used to cry sometimes because I didn’t want to go training and mum used to have to get me to go. I was so young and I think at the time I just wanted to play with my friends at a local team. Looking back now, I regret that a lot.”

Childhood is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and this period should be treasured. We have the contrast where young footballers are following intense and demanding routines in the pursuit of a dream to follow in the footsteps of their idols, while some of those same idols are wishing they could return to playing the game as children with their mates where the focus was on enjoyment.

Former England International footballer David Bentley looked back on his career and admitted“I loved matchdays, the atmosphere and the buzz, but, looking back, the biggest disappointment was coming out of youth team football. Back then I was with my mates, playing Sunday League, you’re winning together with all your mums and dads, that’s when football is brilliant.”

Current England footballer Danny Rose is supposed to be living the dream but warned “Even though I feel very privileged to play football, it’s not something I would – with the things I’ve experienced within the game – be shouting from the rooftops to recommend to people’s children to be a footballer because there are a lot of things that happen on a day-to-day basis at club football that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. There’s pressure, there’s politics – there’s loads of things.”

I had a fantastic time as a professional in futsal, but my fondest memories of playing are still of kick-abouts and matches with my friends when I was a child. Many people assume the only difference between being a professional player and playing with your mates is you’re being paid to do it. The truth is quite different.

Professional sport is like most work environments where there are politics, pressures, obligations, constant evaluation, repetitive routines, sacrifices, selfishness and egos that all need to be navigated. One of my former teammates was looking forward to his retirement and, in response to my inability to comprehend this, cautioned “One day you will feel like me”. I found that a very depressing thought and if I do ever stop enjoying playing, I would have no issue turing my attentions to something else.

I think my continued enthusiasm for the game is due to my motivation coming from enjoying the process of improving and learning. This is only achievable if you give 100% all the time and, as long as you do this, you can’t fail. This mentality encourages embracing challenging situations as they are perceived as an opportunity to grow, something positive to search out. I also believe this is key to any success I have had and any contribution I’ve made to the titles I’ve won.

The Role of Futsal

Returning to the objective of developing elite players, wouldn’t we only want this for those under our care if we know they will enjoy that career? Playing professionally is a means to end, to be able to spend a career doing what you love rather than an end goal itself. The best chance of preventing dreams becoming unfulfilling is to create a strong and robust passion for the game, so the people we help develop have the resilience to cope with the setbacks, challenges and difficult periods that are inevitable in any playing career.

As coaches we should facilitate an engaging environment that leaves our players associating futsal with, above everything else, having fun. This is the real inherent quality and value of this wonderful game. Their experience should result in a desire to have futsal as a part of their future whether in the role of player, coach, referee, fan, administrator, advocate or something else and as a coach, that should be considered the ultimate success.

And those lucky few that do make it to the top, will be able to live the dream through possessing an attitude similar to possibly the greatest sportsperson who ever lived, Michael Jordan. The enduring love he developed for his sport was such that he ensured a clause was included in all his professional contracts throughout his career to allow him to play anywhere, anytime.

Here is what he had to say:

What is your opinion about futsal in Greece?

Futsal in Greece is growing well. Year by year new young players appear. Panou take his role in Movistar Inter few years ago and he is a good example for all the others that with hard work they can reach the stars.

What does a Greek player need to work on, to become better based on your international experience?

They should be more focused and dedicated if they want to become better. Technical and tactical things with good physical preparation will get from their coaches, but goal setting depends only by themselves.

After working for more than 4 years with Greek goalkeepers, what is the level of the Greek goalkeepers and how well do you think they are training?

If you want to improve something you must put attention on it. I use to work with couple of Greek goalkeepers during last 4 years periodically and I can say they are very talented and on a decent level. But without CONSTANT work in their clubs you can not expect their growing

You were a part of the Douykas preseason for a week. What is your opinion about the Greek Champions and the level of the work they have made?

Doukas coaching staff Yannis Mostrios and Vasilis Koutsilas are doing fantastic job. They have a systematical approach to Futsal and they have a vision. No doubt Doukas has many great players and with support by their management they could become very competitive in Europe.

Can they be competitive in the champions League?

It’s hard to say where is the limit for this season, but for sure they can win the group in the Preliminary round. After that everything is possible.

Would you like to work in Greece some day, would you be open to such an opportunity?

Who knows, I am a professional coach and I am open for everyone. Everything depend how good the offer will be.

You work with the Finnish Mens National Team, how have they developed over the years, and what do you see in the future for them?

Finland improve a lot since Mićo Martić start as a head coach 2013. In Finnish FA have a strategy to develop all aspects of Futsal. Coaching education is a strong point of that project. Federation support Futsal department which is very important. I believe Finland has a bright future in Futsal and I am proud to be a part of that.

How mush different is training futsal compared to football?

Futsal and football are not enemies! More and more Futsal elements football players involve in his performance, also in a goalkeeping. Football stars like Ronaldo, Coutinho, Messi, Ronaldinho start with Futsal and said many times how Futsal improve his skills. Coaches from both sports should be clever enough to combine elements and improve his work.

What do you think is missing for futsal to become more popular and develop more in the mindset of fans?

 In my opinion key word is MARKETING! Futsal people must start to spread “Futsal virus” all around and show to the audience and sponsors how Futsal is great and potential! Big step is a fact that Futsal take a part in next youth Olympic games this October in Argentina. Final step will be when Futsal become announced as a Olympic sport.

Panathinaikos was more aggressive throughout the game, missed more opportunities to score, and was held to just two goals, mainly due to the extraordinary performance of Doukas’ goalkeeper Zervas, who made a high-level performance. The final whistle found Doukas players and fans celebrating an unprecedented victory that sees for the first time in history the 4th team of the regular season, winning the title.

.

Doukas eliminated AEK (3-0) in the semifinals and Minotavros(2-1) in the quarterfinals.

See the final match in the following link

One of the most important factors was without doubt the leadership of Head Coach Diego Giustozzi since he took over the national team in 2014. You could see his influence in their performances in Colombia compared to previous Argentina teams. They no longer played like they were inferior to more established nations and aimed to dominate their opponents.

I sat down to chat with the World Cup winning coach who moved to Europe at 18 years old to embark on a distinguished playing career in Italy, Spain and Argentina that finished when he took over the national team. We discuss how they managed to achieve such an incredible feat, their experiences in Colombia and the future for the Argentina National team as well as his own personal ambitions.

I am sure you will find lots of fascinating insights from one of the most inspiring coaches in world futsal with key learnings on what produces a successful national team from both a coaching and development perspective.  Enjoy!

What memories do you have of that World Cup final?

The truth is they are memories that are difficult to explain with words because it was a unique moment. From the moment we won the semi-final I had to try not to motivate the team too much because a World Cup final is very motivating. But also not to relax too much because whatever happened in that final we had already achieved something historic. Therefore, it was a challenge of managing the psychology that was really interesting.

I believed we won the game in the first 10 minutes because we played as we had came to play, as we had prepared for the game and I didn’t see the Russia of their other games. It was a more individual Russia, more dependent on Robinho and Eder Lima. And we were still the same team. We weren’t suffering from being in a final. I thought “we are going to win this”.

As you said it was a challenge to manage the group because nearly all the players hadn’t experienced such an important game. How did you see the squad?

I thought the group looked good. In reality I was the most worried one because in the few days before the final I watched every game of Russia from both the World Cup and that year’s Euro. I thought they were very solid and compact, winning by big scores. The Russians were very good.

Therefore, I was the most worried. I saw my players relaxed, very confident, knowing their strengths and weaknesses. I always stress this a lot, what we have done well to get us to where we are and what we mustn’t do.

I will never forget the picture I saw when I was preparing for the game in my hotel room and looked down out the window. I saw the Russian players coming in lines going to watch a video or to prepare something and my players were in the swimming pool with their families and children, playing in the water and knocking a ball about with their friends.

That really pleased me. Some will say that is not professionalism but that is a lie. I was happy my players were the same as always. This made me relax. The players transmitted calm to me.  But, of course, this needed to be tested on the court. It was not only the first World Cup final for them but also for me. I was only 38 years old. It is something illogical.

What has been the impact of this title in Argentina?

Incredible! It surprised me. In Argentina they demand titles like this. The country needed a title in football. The men’s team hasn’t been doing well, nor the juniors or women’s. At the moment Argentina national teams haven’t been getting results. And we sent a message.

We were on the front of all the newspapers and magazines. I never thought our sport could generate this and what it still generating to this day. Things that are really unimagineable. I think Argentinian futsal is going to have a before and after the 1st October 2016. So the truth is that I feel very happy that it’s a big change for the better.

You won the World Cup without having a professional or national league in the country. How was that possible?

We professionalised the national team. I was very clear on that, I was a player and I knew they couldn’t compete at the international level. I think I took a key decision when I became national team coach that I moved our training sessions to the morning.

With the federation I said the players had to train in the morning and earn more. They could train with the national team in the morning and with their clubs in the evening so they could have 7 or 8 sessions per week. This was key so that Vasile, Vaporaki, Stazzone for example, could play a World Cup on par with Italy, Russia and Spain. It was three years of a lot of high level training sessions.

After, it was knowing very clearly their virtues and defects. We knew we didn’t have to be the most talented national side, we had to be the best team. We had to supplement our technical and physical abilities, in which our rivals were superior, with a perfect team game. I believe we did 8 weeks of preparation for the World Cup perfectly. We didn’t make any mistakes. The training, rest & recovery, tactics, games, everything.

We didn’t have any stars. We had a team that cancelled out the oppoenent completely. We stopped Ricardinho, Eder Lima, the Egyptian player that defeated Italy. We won by a margin in both the quarter and semi-finals and only didn’ in the final because when we were winning 5-2 we relaxed because I believe we thought we were already World Champions. Because of that madness we conceded goals.

You are working on creating a national league in Argentina now. How will you achieve this objective?

I am not going to achieve this objective. This is clear. More so, I don’t want my sport to be all about Diego Giustozzi. I want it to be a sport of everyone. Thanks to my experience and the moment we are living, I, personally, am trying to contribute my experience.

I am looking to create a national league as we can’t compete with leagues that are regional or in one city. If the Spanish League was just the league of Madrid it would be a very poor league. The same if the Italian league was just in Rome or the Russian league only played in Moscow.

Therefore, we need to have a national league. This is dependent on the work of many people. We are now intensifying the work to achieve these objectives and, hopefully, we are capable of taking this project forward. If we don’t, I will be calm because I gave everything to make it happen. Hopefully, we can do it between us and we can make it professional because the moment is now. It is now or never.

How come futsal is so developed in your neighbours Brazil but not in Argentina? Many people from outside would expect there to be a professional league but, as you said, there isn’t even a national league.

Pffff! The truth is I don’t know why it is Brazil that arrived where it arrived many years ago. I believe Argentina at the present time doesn’t know how to sell the product like Brazil. Argentina has improved a lot and we have many professional players and professional clubs but we don’t sell like Brazilians.

If we take the important decisions that Brazil took twenty years ago, we will be in a good place in five years. For sure we now have the capability and potential to make this sport the same as what it is today in Brazil or Spain, Russia, Italy, Portugal or wherever.  This is a unique and historic moment in the country. Even though we are twenty years behind what futsal is in Brazil, I hope this is the moment to take the leap forward.

You won the World Cup without a national league, so I imagine you still have a large margin for improvement!

We have a big margin for improvement. We have many very good things but it is true that what the national team did was unheard of. Really incredible. People who go outside the country realise this.  They as themselves “How is it possible with what we have to achieve this?”

Of course, Brazil have five World Cups, Spain two and we only have one but the truth is it a little incredible and hopefully the message I send out to the national team is anything  is possible. Because when I arrived in the national team the only thing I was hearing was “no, this isn’t possible”, “we can’t do this because of this or that”.

This made me crazy because for me, in life, can’t doesn’t exist. With ability, humility, planning, professionalism, everything is possible. I believe I sent the national team a very strong message on this.

In your playing career you had well known coaches Venancio and Miguel Rodrigo plus Jesus Velasco influenced you a lot. Can you tell us for each of the important coaches in your career one thing you have taken from them and used in your work as a coach?

I think I took a little bit from all of them. I took the defensive phase of Venancio (see my interview with Venancio here), the way of being of Miguel Rodrigo, the offensive phase of Jesus Velasco. I took from all of them.

Giustozzi played 3 World Cups & 80 times with Argentina.

Venancio was the one who introduced me into the world of professionalism and details. I came from Italy where its light years away from what it is in Spain and Venancio opened my eyes. But there are many things where we are distinct from each other, in terms of managing the group, in the attacking phase, in many things that I interpret in a different way. Venancio had a big impact on me.

Also Miguel Rodrigo and I studied Velasco a lot as I watched his teams many times. I took many things from him as well as from many coaches. I try to be myself with my personality and take the best of each one.

When you were a player, did you think I want to be a coach? Were you taking notes?

This was incredible. Those that know me personally, know that when I was a player I was a coach inside the court. When I was with Venancio and in Italy, I was noting down exercises. I wanted to be a coach.

Everyone says playing is more enjoyable than coaching. I enjoy coaching more. In my last years playing I was already a coach. I looked after  youth teams. I ended up being player-coach in many teams. I could see I was going to be a coach. I stopped playing because I didn’t care anymore about being a player, I wanted to be a coach.

I was fortunate that I had the offer to coach Argentina. It is rare because usually you coach a club, gain experience there and then move on to the national team. I have done the opposite. The truth is in 3 years we played 11 finals from 11 tournaments and won 6. Not even if I had the most positive outlook possible, I thought this would happen. If someone had said this to me I would have said you’re crazy and it really is incredible.

What is your preferred way of playing if you had your ideal players?

My style of play, my team, everything I am is decided by the players. The players choose the values. and principles. It doesn’t matter to me who they are. I have to try to find a way of attacking anddefending that makes them better players. That makes them feel like people, happy, that fills their soul.

It is not about the tactics, the players are the protagonists. I have to work to find a training methodology, a playing system that fills their soul, that they are themselves. After that, of course, I am obsessed with tactics.  I have to try to adjust some things to agree with what players I have.

But I am going to repeat. My job is to get 100% out of the sporting and human element of each player. For me this is fundamental, my focus and obsession. Luckily, this is what I managed to do with Argentina and we achieved unthinkable and historic feats.

I presume that one day you will leave the Argentinian National Team. What are your ambitions and plans for your career in the future?

The truth is I am very comfortable in the Argentina national team. They treat me very well, I get on well with my managers, I feel very happy working here and I can’t complain about anything. We won everything and the players are happy in the team. They play like I want.

I miss the day to day and coaching every day and competing every weekend.  This is something that I find difficult but I am in a very privileged place and until the last day I am going to enjoy it. To leave Argentina I would have to be somewhere that I am very motivated to be in. Therefore, I don’t know.

I have a contract until the end of the year. When the moment arrives, I will decide. I live in the present but I am still young at 39 years old. It is true that I aspire to coach a club and to live the day to day of working in a club. I don’t know the future but I repeat I am enjoying the present and I live what I have. It is not everyday that you get to coach your country.

You must already be thinking about the 2020 World Cup. How are you preparing for this tournament? Do you expect to continue with many of the same players?

I prepare for 2020 but not for me. I prepare for the national team. From the moment I coached my country the benefit to me personally was in the background.

I do it for my country and my sport. I do it for the benefit of my country because I don’t know if I am coaching the team in 2020. I am very clear on this.

In a club it is another thing. Then you care about yourself as well but in the national team you don’t. I could earn much, much more money somewhere else. I’m not here for money, only for the motivation of coaching my country and to give back everything my country has given me in my life. Everything I am today is thanks to futsal and thanks to Argentina.

Therefore, what I prepare for 2020 is for the wellbeing of the sport and the wellbeing of Argentina. For what Argentina needs, not what Diego Giustozzi needs. After the end of the 2016 World Cup we studied, with [Assistant Coach] Mathias Luciux and my staff, about how we could arrive better in 2020.

I believe we leave results a little to one side, although it is a slight lie because every tournament we play, we go to win. After the World Cup we played two finals, winning one and losing the other. We want to win but also to begin to give minutes to younger players.  They were training well and we want that they have the possibility, when 2019 or 2020 arrives, to be capable to play the World Cup.

I was a player and to play a World Cup you need a lot of experience. You have to have 50 international matches to play a World Cup. We want to give those players games so that they when the World Cup arrives, I’m not saying they will play, but that they are prepared.

If the players that played the last World Cup who are still, today, part of the national team, don’t play anymore it is important it is down to me and not the press or external influences.  Therefore, with the same players that played the 2016 World Cup plus the players that we are giving minutes now like we did in recent tournaments, we have to find the fourteen best players that are the most prepared for that moment.

In 2020 we will play with the badge on the chest of World Champions.  It is not the same to play against Argentina before and to play against Argentina now for the opponent’s motivation and their tactical plan against us is now like against Spain or Brazil. It is not the same to play in the Argentinian national team now like before. The opponents will have extra motivation.  So, we took this decision and we will continue to give minutes to younger players until 2020, trying to continue to win titles.

Do you think this is the difference from before, now that you are World Champions you now have a winning mentality and confidence because Argentina has always had talent but their best previous performance in the World Cup was reaching the quarter finals?

Yes, Argentina has always had great teams because I was a player and I saw my teammates and the quality we had. In Argentina we have to learn one thing, that the details make the difference. In the national team we work on the most miniscule detail.

We are very clear on this if we want to win the World Cup which was our objective because before we had never gone into a World Cup with this aspiration, only thinking let’s see what happens. I said on my first day in our first conversation, Argentina is capable of winning the World Cup.

But we have to be clear on things. We don’t have the best players and we don’t have the best national team so we have to work harder and better than our rivals. And I believe in this detail we made the difference.

Before the World Cup we did the easy thing, we went toe-toe with our rivals. We were the Copa America and Copa Intercontinetal champions. We played at their level. Normally the details fall on the side of experience, the side of teams like Brazil and Spain. We had to work so the detail falls on our side.  And I believe we did it.

In Argentina we miss this at every level. We fail to work on the details and it is the details that are decisive in the difficult moments, whether you will win or lose. I believe the change of mentality has been helped by the results, a good playing system, a good training methodology so that the player became convinced it was possible. From there we worked on the details. And in the end the results went our way so we can say we did a good job.

What are some of the qualities that make Argentinian players special?

We grow up playing futsal in open air courts in the rain, training at 10pm or 11pm at night and returning on the bus after midnight. Meanwhile the Spanish, Italians, Russians and Brazilians are training at 12 years old with the best balls, a 40mx20m court with wooden flooring and heating. But we suffered to arrive where we have arrived.

Argentines have a quality that no other player has in the world. No-one in the world knows how to suffer like Argentinians. With difficulties Argentinians grow, improve. They enjoy the battle and to fight. This is priceless.

I hope you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did. It was clear to see why Diego is such a motivating leader that players want to follow as I found chatting with him was very inspiring. This month, after this interview took place, the first ever national league in Argentina was announced from which Giustozzi had championed and worked on for a long time.

It is another achievement for Argentinian futsal alongside the World Cup victory that is transforming the sport in the country. Before reaching his 40th birthday Diego has already achieved so much and made a huge impact. Without doubt, with his passion and expertise, there will be many more successes to come as he continues his journey.

(This article is reproduced directly from DougReedFutsal.com with the permission of the author)

Another fantastic UEFA Futsal Euro has ended with the usual drama, excitement and, as with the last World Cup, a new name on the trophy.

There were many great games even if we didn’t see the level of previous championships and we had far less goals than ever before at an average of 4.55 per match (previous low of 5.13 in 2003). It would be an error to read too much into the low goal scoring from just one event, especially as the last edition was a record, and it could be a positive highlighting that the tournament is getting more competitive.

Only 3 of the 20 games had a goal difference of more than two goals and, excluding Portugal’s 8-1 win over Azerbaijan, the average goal difference in matches was just 1.16 per game. Only eventual champions Portugal won every group game. Pre-tournament favourites Spain, who were so dominant last time, made the final winning only 2 games and both were narrow 1-0 victories.

Attendances were high again in a small country where futsal isn’t so established and the final was watched on television by just under 3 million in Spain and Portugal alone. I am sure we will see viewing figures across the continent will be strong again (up nearly 40% last time) when they are released. This shows the already significant interest in the sport, which is growing rapidly, and the high value it offers to sponsors and broadcasters.

There were lots of interesting results and performances and I have reviewed each team below followed by my team of the tournament.

Azerbaijan – Position: Quarter Finals – Grade: D

Despite taking a fortunate lead against Portugal in the quarter final before they lost 8-1, they got their tactics wrong even though they played strategically intelligently in their group matches.  Pivot Bolinha impressed early in the tournament.

France – Position: Group Stages – Grade: C

They did superbly to grind out a result against the defending champions Spain by sitting back and counter attacking. I think in four years, with how their league is developing, they will be back with a much more expansive game. One of Europe’s rising nations.

Italy – Position: Group Stages – Grade: F

Surprisingly they didn’t take any pivot until they brought Fortino in during the tournament for the injury to their captain Lima. This left them with their only attacking threat in Merlim. I think it is time for them to make some big decisions for the future after performances here and at the World Cup.

Kazakhstan –  Position: 4th – Grade: A

Only penalties away from making it to the final, demonstrating they are one of Europe’s strongest teams. Heavily reliant on their three Brazilian born players but the others also have talent. Fantastic performance again with the guidance of Head Coach Cacau who is leaving the team. Will be interesting to see the impact that losing their influential leader will have.

Poland – Position: Group Stages – Grade: C

Did well to earn a draw against Russia after a fantastic performance from Kałuża in goal and some last ditch defending. A young team that should qualify in 2022 with the aim to make it to the knockout stages.

Portugal – Position: Winners – Grade: A

Before the tournament said that they couldn’t rely on Ricardinho and, even though he was still their best player, several others took on responsibility. Best attacking team scoring by far the most goals. Showed confidence in themselves in the final which was missing previously, especially against Iberian rivals Spain.

Romania – Position: Group Stage – Grade: E

Didn’t look in the best physical condition and used the fly goalkeeper to try to waste time. Not the level of the Romania of a few years ago.

Russia – Position: 3rd Place – Grade: C

Disappointing from Russia whose defence managed to get them to get the 3rd place. So much talent but doesn’t seem to come together well. Will this generation ever win silverware despite getting close time and time again?

Serbia – Position: Quarter Finals – Grade: C

Despite not winning a game, they performed admirably and only poor finishing stopped them from defeating Kazakhstan and going to the semi-finals for the second tournament running. Star players demonstrated their quality again.

Slovenia – Position: Quarter Finals – Grade: C

Fought like warriors to get to the quarter finals but I felt they could have done much better if they had not limited themselves to using such a small number of players. They have to give trust to more players going forward.

Spain – Position: Runners Up – Grade: B

In 2016 they relied on set plays and stealing the ball high up the court to set up counter attacks as their attack didn’t function well. This time they didn’t steal the ball high as teams knew not to risk in possession but set plays were a reliable source of goals. Losing the potency of one of their weapons wasn’t enough to retain their title even though they had the better chances in the final.

Ukraine – Position: Quarter Finals – Grade: C

A new team that risks more in possession than before. Even though it got them to the same position as the last four Futsal Euros, this is a team that has a bright future and could finally get them past the quarter finals.

Team of the Tournament

Leo Higuita (GK) – No goalkeeper has as much influence on his team as the Kazakhstan goalkeeper with his role in their attacking play. Was also one of the best shot stoppers at the championships.

Adrian Pola – He was my player of the tournament in 2016 and he was again Spain’s best player and got the winner in their two victories.

Bruno Coelho – Scored in every game as well as two in the final plus four assists. Really stepped up his performance in this tournament to take some of the weight of Ricardinho’s shoulders.

Douglas – Incredible performance with the highest assists in the tournament. Complete player that could play in any team in the world.

Ricardinho – Shone again throughout and got the only achievement he was missing in his career, a title with Portugal. Became the tournament top scorer for this edition and the history of the championships, overtaking the legendary Russian Tsar Eremenko. A genuine superstar that we are fortunate to have.

For these championships I produced a score predictor game called Futsal Predictor and just under fifty videos providing analysis and comment. The idea behind doing these was to achieve two things.

For any entertainment to capture you I believe you need to know the story behind it and feel you have a personal interest in the outcome. We have the most spectacular and skilful sport to watch but spectators also need the information that will result in them being emotionally captured by what is occurring on court.

It was a significant financial and time investment but it will have been worth it if it helped engage people in the championships and in elite futsal going forward. More interest in the elite game is the only way we will generate our own funds to develop the sport.

There were some very impressive performances with a couple of players getting 14 out of 20 results correct and the winner correctly predicting 25% of the scores correctly. The Top 5 players won prizes contributed by Umbro including their new Chaleira Pro shoe which was worn by three of the winning Portuguese players.

We now have to wait four years until the next addition and with four extra places up for grabs it will be interesting to see which teams qualify for UEFA Futsal Euro 2022. In the meantime, for European international competition, we have the Women’s Futsal Euro and U19 championships to enjoy in 2019.

Read more at www.dougreedfutsal.com

You can also follow the author on Twitter: @DougReedFutsal

(This article is reproduced directly from DougReedFutsal.com with the permission of the author)

Futsal has gained a devoted following but has not yet achieved widespread popularity. Developing a passion for the game requires an introduction and opportunity to experience it regularly. Unfortunately, many haven’t had this.

Futsal has gained a devoted following but has not yet achieved widespread popularity. Developing a passion for the game requires an introduction and opportunity to experience it regularly. Unfortunately, many haven’t had this.

The preeminant version of futsal that is played worldwide has been governed by FIFA, and its members, since they developed it in the 1980s.  It has been promoted based on its relevance to football with claims such as it helps develop football players or is a more exciting version of the 11-a-side game. They have targeted this at the football community with some success, creating new advocates that further endorsed the game back to that group they were still connected with.

The path to developing an interest in futsal coming from football became more ingrained and self-propagating to the extent where it is almost exclusively promoted to those in football. Approaching the football community has been worthwhile and should be continued but such a concentrated focus on the 11-a-side game is limiting futsal reaching its potential for two reasons.

Firstly, promoting it through what it offers compared to football creates the perception that it is a substitute or supplement for the 11-a-side game. This encourages a superficial and temporary involvement. To get this to being more genuine and long-term, a group who in football have developed an in-depth knowledge, established their status and are intertwined in that community, need to be convinced it is worth acquiring these things in futsal.

This involves significant switching costs in investment of time and effort, even if close links between the sports mean they won’t start completely from scratch. This applies equally to a coach, player or fan. It limits its attractiveness within the football community to only the most open minded who will embrace the challenge, and the less experienced with little to lose such as children. What seems like the intuitive market to target might actually be one of the most challenging to interest.

The second reason, and most importantly, is the complete focus on football diverts attention away from both the broader competition futsal faces and improving the game. The rest of this post is dedicated to exploring this second point and how futsal must evolve to reach its potential.

The Competition

Futsal’s competition goes far beyond football and neither is it just other sports, many of which have introduced shorter, more exciting formats to attract new fans and players. Some of these have been so successful they have become more popular than the traditional formats they derived from. Also, futsal is not even the exclusive small sided variant of football in many places. The sporting landscape is challenging enough but the competition futsal faces does not end there.

Playing or watching futsal consumes people’s time when they are free to choose what they would like do. This is very limited and there isn’t enough to allocate to all the activities that people enjoy. These include things like watching TV, going to the cinema, visiting friends, working out at the gym, surfing the internet and playing video games.

The growing trend in how leisure time is spent has been the increasing part technology plays in people’s lives.  60 years ago the TV became ubiquitous, 20 years later the amount of TV channels available increased significantly and 10 years after that video games gained popularity. A little later most households had a personal computer with internet access that eventually offered online video streaming and social media. Now everyone can do these things anywhere and anytime through smartphones with multiple capabilities.

In the coming years, virtual reality, with its immersive and realistic experiences, will become more popular as will e-sports (as recent broadcasting deals suggest) plus many future inventions that can’t be anticipated. Technology already takes several hours of people’s day on average and the speed of technological innovation is increasing.

An abundant amount of options and scarce time to do them means high supply and limited demand, creating a very competitive environment for people’s attention. Basing the case of promoting futsal on the benefits compared to football alone, just one of a constantly expanding list of rivals that span multiple industries, makes no sense. Despite the magnitude of the task futsal faces to become a mainstream sport, it can succeed with the right approach.

The Futsal ‘Product’

The key to futsal’s success is to switch attention to improving the futsal experience and then positive comparisons to its competitors will be a natural outcome. When choosing what they will do in their free time, people compare, even if implicitly, to evaluate which offers the most rewarding experience.

This process is identical to what takes place when a consumer is choosing any product or service. For example, buying a mobile phone involves considering the features to decide which to use their money on. When deciding between whether to play futsal or a video game they will evaluate the enjoyment that will be gained from each and choose which they will use their time for. These situations are comparable with the main difference being the principal scarce resource spent, money or time.

To be chosen over rivals, companies are forced to continually refine their product and effectively communicate its benefits. It is survival of the fittest. We can see that technology companies are continually inventing new products and other sports are starting to do the same through creating new formats or updating everything that surrounds the game.

Futsal must adopt this same focus of constantly improving the futsal ‘product’ and increasing the awareness of it to gain market share. If your focus is on a competitor rather than your customer experience you can become satisfied, as long as you’re currently ahead, even if your product could be better. This advantage may be temporary as competitors improve or an unanticipated new entrant comes with something superior and you are then forced to play catch up. A customer focus will mean you never stop pushing to provide a more memorable experience. This is one of the fundamental principles that has driven Amazon to quickly become one of the world’s biggest companies.

The game does not require a revolution but rather a constant process of evolution. The core premise of futsal as defined by the fundamental rules is what makes it is so incredible and many already have fallen in love with it. Even if there is a case for adapting some peripheral rules to accentuate its spectacular nature such as going back to using throw-ins (see here & here). It is how the game is presented. packaged and experienced in the two distinct segments of the futsal product that needs to be looked at. These are the grassroots game that covers participation and the elite level which is about providing entertainment.

Futsal has emulated other sports who, until very recently, barely evolved over the last half century during this period of rapid change in technology and society. Over that time sport became more financially lucrative due to growth in broadcasting deals and sponsorship. This made it complacent when participation numbers began falling. Lamenting about kids spending their time watching TV, then playing video games and, most recently, being on their smartphones could be heard but little was done to address this.

Lifetime loyalty is captured during childhood (related to the switching costs built-up as mentioned earlier). As generations brought up on technology over sport grow older that will remain their preference. That could already be bearing out as there are indications that TV viewing figures of sport are starting to decline.

This is the curse of success that has been seen time and time again in the commercial world. A famous example is Kodak who, with a highly lucrative business, failed to take advantage as photography became incorporated into phones and eventually went bankrupt. Futsal needs to break away from the historical sport model and embrace innovation to get ahead of the curve. This is where it’s shorter history can be an advantage as it is less inhibited by tradition.

Technology as a Reference

Technology poses a threat but it also presents an opportunity to learn from their strategies and product features to enhance the futsal product. Investing billions into innovation and developing strategies to get people to use their products has produced results. They are the leaders in winning the battle for people’s attention as is evident from seeing people all around engrossed in digital devices. Their innovations have become a core part of daily life.

Below are a few examples to encourage looking further afield for ideas to help futsal progress and modernise, and provide a better product.

-The technology industry, where there are lots of interdependent relationships among suppliers and rivals, use roadmaps to collaborate and co-operate. All the companies involved get together to create an industry wide long-term strategic plan that they all follow. By co-ordinating all their activities, from research and development to final sales, everyone benefits.

An example of where this could be used in futsal is when developing elite leagues. From my experience, I have seen a reluctance to work together between those involved and instead isolate themselves. Clubs often see each other as rivals. On the court this is true but off the court it is in everyone’s interest to collaborate. Clubs, federations, venues, TV broadcasters, fans, media and sponsors are all stakeholders in an elite league and need to be part of and contribute to a plan if it is to be successful. Instead of fighting each other for a bigger piece of the pie, working together can make the pie big enough so everyone gets more.

– Friction is any inconvenience the customer experiences throughout the whole process of a using a product, starting from finding information on it. Amazon found that a 1 second delay in loading its web pages would cost it $1.6 billion in sales annually and introduced one click ordering to reduce friction in the checkout process. Very small inconveniences can make a big difference in people’s decisions and this applies in both the digital and physical world. To find friction the whole customer experience needs to be considered and how it could be made more convenient. This might be taking payments online, making easier to find out about your products or introducing ways to reduce commute time.

– Technology companies have studied human psychology to learn how to increase engagement. Video games are one of the best at maximising motivation through giving users autonomy, the ideal level of challenge and providing rewards on an variable schedule. This can be useful knowledge for coaches and these characteristics are best produced in a game based methodology (See here).

– Their pricing strategies are designed to encourage people to give their products a try and get accustomed to using them, something very relevant for futsal with many uninitiated in the game. They use trial periods and freemium models, the latter where they attract people by providing something for free but cover their costs through additional services that are paid for.

As well as providing inspiration, the technology industry also offers products and services that can be utilised by futsal organisations. Cloud computing provides online applications for managing teams, memberships, newsletters, sports leagues, customer relationships and invoicing/payments. These are useful tools and you only pay for what you use so there isn’t a big risk in experimenting with them. Online advertising and social media can be very useful for small organisations to promote their products in a cost effective and efficient way.

I hope one day there will be a futsal video game to increase the interest and knowledge of the sport and its stars as already happened to an extent when it was included in the FIFA Street video game. EA Sports’ soccer video game has been credited with the increasing popularity of football in the USA. Virtual reality is another way that will enable us to give a taste of futsal with little effort.

Profiting from futsal can benefit the game

Innovation requires significant investment as does spreading the game and creating more awareness. This should not be underestminated and can be identified as the key factor holding futsal’s development back as rivals generate huge profits to reinvest in their products. This can only be done through multiple organisations and is beyond the limitations of governing bodies. This is why for-profit companies will have to play an important role in developing the game. Some are uncomfortable with this but below I provide reasons why this is the case.

Sport governing bodies are favoured as they are not-for-profit which means they reinvest any surplus they make back into the game. They are like for-profit companies in that they still try to earn money as otherwise they wouldn’t have anything to spend. Mainly they do this through putting money into the elite game and then earning revenue through selling sponsorships and broadcast rights, and funding from the state. Governing bodies and other not-for-profit organisations are clear that their end goal is to develop the game so are more likely to invest in areas that might not interest for-profit companies such as catering for disadvantaged groups. However, for the following reasons for-profit companies can benefit futsal’s development;

-They can provide much greater amounts of investment. If investors receive a suitable return on their money then this will attract more capital, at levels that can’t be achieved by a non-profit. By a project being profitable there is a big incentive to expand and spread it widely. Hence why for-profit organisations completely outnumber other types. The proportion of money non-profits receive from government is precarious and has been getting smaller in recent times.

-The public ultimately decides if for-profit companies stay in business as  otherwise they will be allowed to fail like Kodak. This creates an intense focus on satisfying the customer through their products. They are more innovative and can take risky and longer-term projects to succeed. Marketing to promote their products and services is regarded as an investment rather than a cost. Non-profits, on the other hand, have trustees that are required to be very prudent and promote long-term stability. In one sense this is an advantage but encourages investing in more certain projects that have much less potential positive impact.

-For-profits are typically governed and structured more efficiently. Investors desire for a return produces an oversight to ensure their money is being managed well and efficiently. This makes them much more flexible and the decision-making process is much faster. Increased accountability can lead to lower expenditure on administration and non-core activities which is another way money leaks out of the game. In contrast, governing bodies have frequently been monopolies with archaic structures, extensive bureaucracy, lethargic decision making and self-regulating.

-Loss of funds to the game is not limited to for-profit organisations as profit is the cost of providing investment like interest on a loan and not-for-profits also encounter financing costs. (The English FA spent just under £30 million in 2015 on financing costs). In addition, part of the profits go in state tax which will be used for a wider social benefit.

Instead of thinking of the different organisations in terms of having one or other, both can co-exist and are better equipped to fulfil certain roles.  Together they can ensure the game reaches more people, innovates and isn’t financially prohibitive.

The next stage of the journey

Increasing competition, particularly from advancing technology, has become a major threat but there are other trends that favour futsal. The world’s population are moving to cities, with already over half residing in urban areas where space is at a premium. Football is the world’s number one sport and interest is growing in China, India and the U.S.A. who account for 35% of the world population. This is where we can choose to take advantage of the similarities with football as it helps futsal to be immediately understood. With its characteristics of requiring limited space, being easy to organise and can be played year-round in any climate, it is in a great position to benefit from these two trends.

Both futsal and football are great sports that will always maintain a close and mutually beneficial relationship. They are not replacements for each other and you can enjoy both. However, over time, being governed by football federations and their close links has led to too much focus on futsal in relation to football. This is restricting futsal’s progress. Futsal shouldn’t position itself as football’s little brother/sister and be judged on comparisons with its bigger and successful sibling.

There is a big world out there that futsal can conquer but that will only happen with confidence to embrace its distinctiveness. Its unique in offering non-stop intensity, dynamism, action, creativity, skill, drama and engagement, all in an accessible way. There will always be a huge demand for this and that has yet to be fully tapped. It can capture a wide audience and has already shown to be popular among groups that other sports have traditionally ignored or not made to feel welcome such as women and families.

Success, however, is not guaranteed and there are many challenges to overcome. We must ensure the game is presented and promoted in the best way possible through, above all, a passion for the game but also investment and good management to bring innovation, strategic thinking and increased awareness. Our competitors can be a starting point for learning more about these aspects but the focus must be on futsal and how people experience it. By doing this, instead of opting for the latest gadget, the world will choose to enjoy the incredible sport of futsal.

Read more at www.dougreedfutsal.com

You can also follow the author on Twitter at @DougReedFutsal