English Futsal: Graeme Dell

03/05/2010
English FutsalCourtesy: This is Wiltshire

Best fut forward

By Ned Payne

DESPITE
its huge growth in popularity in recent years, futsal remains a sport
that is a mystery to many.

The easiest way to describe it is as a
five-a-side form of indoor football, but that is not a definition that
sits particularly comfortably with Graeme Dell.

A former England
futsal manager, Dell is employed by the Football Association to develop
the game in this country, and is a member of the management team at
Swindon’s @Futsal arena.

I meet the 46-year-old at the Kembrey
Park facility, and am keen to find out whether he believes futsal stands
on its own two feet, or merely improves skills for the 11-a-side game.

“I
think it’s a bit of all of the above,” he said. “But the laws are very
different to what we would know as five-a-side and very different to
football.

“One of the mistakes the developing nations have made
is that they try to latch it onto the back of football and not treat it
as a game in its own right, and once you do that, you’re in a danger
zone because you’re trying to compete.

“This will compete with
every other sport but it’s not a replacement for football, it goes hand
in glove with it.”

Because of the success of countries such as
Brazil and Spain on the international stage, those looking from the
outside have often labelled futsal as a more creative, flair-driven game
than its counterparts.

But as Dell points out when I try some
the basic skills, it’s more about keeping it simple than anything else.

Control
the ball. Play the easy pass. Move. It makes complete sense. Rarely do
you see the likes of Iniesta and Xavi lose the ball because that is
exactly what they do on the pitch, and Dell agrees.

“Futsal will
offer players left and right-footed development and an understanding of
interplay within different positions,” he said.

“You don’t have
a fixed forward, a fixed defender, a fixed winger, a fixed goalkeeper –
you have to constantly rotate, and what that does is develops a more
rounded player.

“Those players that we eulogise about week-in
week-out – Fabregas, Deco, Iniesta, Xavi – they’ve all grown up playing
this game.

“You could put them anywhere on a football pitch and
they would do a competent, capable job, more so than many of the players
that we (in England) develop.

“My belief is that much of that
is down to their formative years spent playing this game.”

With
three official FIFA futsal pitches, one international FIFA futsal pitch,
electronic pitch-side scoreboards and live video replays of matches, it
is impossible not to be impressed by @Futsal.

But for Dell, who
has been all over the world in the name of the sport, how does it
compare with arenas he has seen elsewhere?

“I spent five years
as national coach for the FA, researching and finding out how we could
get better at it, learning more about the game,” he said.

“I
watched over 100 national teams play or train and saw some fantastic
facilities, and this at Swindon is among the best.

“I’ve not
seen many better than they’ve got here. It’s superb and needs to be
used. It’s got everything you need for the game.”