England look to futsal for their Messi, Ronaldo – We’ve started to get a real momentum behind the game. England coach Peter Sturgess

2719703_full-lndWhile the historical roots of the beautiful game are often disputed, the fact that England was where the modern game really began to be shaped is never up for debate. However, when it comes to futsal, its relationship is quite different.

Compared to its Latin veterans, England were very late to the party in adopting the sport – their national team was not formed until 2003 – 73 years since the game was first conceived in Uruguay. However, the national team is out to prove their growth in the game by progressing beyond the European preliminary qualifiers for the FIFA Futsal World Cup for the first time.

The Three Lions, ranked 59th in the world, head to Israel to tackle Wales, Denmark and the hosts in their quest to reach Colombia 2016. “It’s not a group of death, but we could all beat each other on any given day,” coach Peter Sturgess told FIFA.com ahead of the trip.

“It’s tantalising as we just need to ensure that we turn up and perform really, really well. It’s a really tight group but I think we feed off that. We have to be confident, because our current form is quite good. We’re currently punching well above our weight and our recent results have been nothing short of remarkable.”

Should they top the group they will meet Ukraine, Hungary and Belgium, with Sturgess acknowledging that the next stage would be huge for English futsal. “It would be remarkable, but I do think it would be well earned,” he said.

“The England team is at the peak of the [development] pyramid and we want to use it to inspire people to engage with futsal – to play more, talk about it more, so that the whole game develops. [Qualification] would be the culmination of a decade of hard slog where we’ve had to overcome lots and lots of obstacles. It would be a massive pay-off for everyone.”

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