While football’s World Cup has currently got many of us gripped, let’s not forget that there are many, many other sports being played around the globe.

One of those is futsal, which is a very close relation of the beautiful game, of course.

Futsal is described as a variant of football played on a hard court, smaller than a football pitch and mainly indoors.

It is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper. Unlimited substitutions are permitted but walls or boards are not used.

Futsal is also played with a smaller, harder, low-bounce ball. The surface, ball and rules together favour ball control and passing in small spaces with the emphasis is on improvisation, creativity and technique.

The sport is played in Cheltenham and more specifically by the Cheltenham Town Community Trust.

They run three squads of eight made up of BTEC students – a first team squad and two development squads.

Jon Bruce is the head of futsal and he is reflecting on another good campaign.
“This season the players worked really hard,” he said. “We had a mix of year 12/13 students. We had a small squad which gave players plenty of game time, allowing them to develop and play as much futsal as possible. A lot of these players had never played futsal before and were used to the 11v11 format.

“The players have adapted well to the different needs of futsal and through this have got better technically which can then transfer back into their 11v11 games on the weekend.

“Futsal is a fast paced game played indoors with a size 4 football which is much heavier than a normal ball. They have four seconds to get the ball back in play when it goes out, which keeps the tempo of the game high with players playing 20-40 minutes depending on the competition were competing in.

“It’s a really fun game to be involved in either on or off the pitch as it’s end to end constantly with bundles of goals being scored or conceded.”

And while the games have clearly been entertaining, the Cheltenham Town Community Trust team have enjoyed some success too.

“We had one player – Jamie Lewis – score over 40 goals this season which was a great achievement for him,” added Bruce. “And two of our players – Jamie and Callum Prudence – were selected in the All Star tournament which was held at St George’s Park.

“This competition is a regional one and this year it was won by the South West.

“To have two players involved with that made the club very proud and shows that the hard work the boys are putting in is paying off for them.”