Massey Futsal team heads to Australian games

Massey University’s Albany Futsal team heads across the ditch this week to compete in the Eastern Australia University Games after winning gold at the New Zealand University Games in April.

The North Shore-based team has been training hard prior to the games in Canberra, where they will compete against 11 Australian university teams in the popular football derivative that originated in South America and is now played by millions worldwide.

Team captain and manager Salam Arif says members of the eight-strong team have been juggling study and exams with an intense training schedule.

“We are all very excited to compete in Canberra. We’re going to play hard, have fun and we endeavour to come home with a medal,” says Mr Arif, a fourth year engineering student.

He and team member Ammar Fahmi were members of the United Arab Emirates Futsal Team that competed in the Gulf Cup, winning a bronze medal. All players in the team have competed in the Massey Albany Futsal Legends tournament, and Massey University Albany are the current Inter-tertiary League Futsal Champions, New Zealand University Games Football gold medallists and runners-up for the annual Northern Region Tertiary Challenge.

New Zealand Football Futsal Development manager Dave Payne says futsal is ideal for university students because of the short game times, flexibility as to where it can be played and fitness benefits.
His organisation has supported the team with kit and gear for the tournament, and is keen to see the game develop in New Zealand because “it’s a fantastic game in its own right, and one of the benefits is that it can help outdoor soccer players to hone their skills.”

Futsal – played with a low-bounce ball – helps players improve dribbling, passing and control, he says. “Playing in a reduced space helps the players develop creativity, improvisation, technique and quick decision-making.”

New Zealand Football’s Futsal Whites team came third of eight teams in the 2011 Oceanic Football Confederation (OFC) Futsal Championships in Fiji in May. The game has professional leagues throughout Europe, South America and Asia, and with a Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup every four years. The name Futsal is derived from the Portugese words futebol (football) and sala (hall).