It was in the 1930s that Futsal found its origins, particularly in Brazil and Uruguay. In France, with 30,000 members, the discipline is developing more and more and the French team is now one of the 20 best nations in the world. In our region, the highest ranked club is that of Pessac which plays in the second division, a championship organized by the French Football Federation.
Pessac: only New Aquitaine team at this level
Futsal is played with 4 field players and 1 goalkeeper with 2 halves of 20 minutes in stopped time on a handball court and unlimited substitutions which gives a very spectacular discipline as explained by the President of the Pessac Rabii El Aouady club
It’s very intensive. Lots of back and forth, lots of strategy and tactics. Substitutions are unlimited and as soon as we have the ball we bring out players who tend to be defensive in quotes or bring in players with offensive qualities. Then, as soon as we lose the ball, we bring out the offensives to bring in the defensive – Rabii El Aouady
A discipline very different from 11-a-side football
And that is the spectacular aspect of the discipline. Not a second where nothing happens, the changes, the game, everything has to go very quickly. Among the players of the first team of Pessac, Mario Domingues Rodrigues who started futsal at the age of 19 and impossible for him to change, futsal seems addictive
Once you’ve tasted futsal, you don’t want to go back to eleven-a-side football. It was my case. We have more contact with the ball, so it’s different, futsal, we’re always on the move. Then, even ten seconds from the end, there can be reversals – Mario Domingues Rodrigues
2 young players shortlisted for the France U17 team
Not content with being the highest ranked club in the region, Pessac also wants to train players. And the success is there because two young people, Hamza Oufkir and Abdellah Abdelhalim, have just spent 3 days in Clairefontaine with the French U17 team. It must be said that in Pessac, the practice of futsal starts early, as President Rabii El Aouady explains to us.
The practice of futsal, it starts from the U6. So all our categories practice futsal, train in futsal and 11-a-side football, but they compete in 11-a-side football because there is no futsal competition yet in the League. I hope it will happen very soon. And suddenly, we are the first club because there are clubs that are starting to do the same thing as us. But we were the first club in France to do the double practice – Rabii El Aouady
The season should resume in September for a new season in D2. Until then the club will participate like last year in the copa coca cola futsal organized this summer and in the fall by the French football federation.