by Natalia Chan
Turns out it's pretty massive, and is catching on in the UK. As someone who's much more used to playing and watching football, I was very intrigued to stumble across this fast growing and fast paced game which set off the likes of Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Robinho and Roberto Carlos on the road to international glory with silky skills developed from playing futsal as youngsters.
Why is Maslaha interested in this? Well, the Muslim Women's Sports Foundation run professional training in futsal and basketball in London and Birmingham, and also organise extremely fun futsal festivals and futsal leagues. As the official UK body for the International Women’s Islamic Games, MWSF also organised for Team GB to compete in 2001 and 2005 - the first non-Muslim country to be represented at the games. We're still waiting to hear when the next Games will be but watch out for more news as soon as we hear. Forget the World Cup, Maslaha will be screaming for Team GB at the next International Women's Islamic Games!
Learn more about Futsal...
The name 'Futsal' simply combines the Spanish words for ‘Hall’ – Sala and ‘Football’ – Futbol into Futsal. It is a five-a-side game, played with hockey sized goals and a smaller ball with a reduced bounce.
As a small-sided game players are constantly placed in situations where they must receive or play whilst under pressure or in confined spaces and it places considerable demand on technique, movement, tactical awareness and fitness.
Find out more from the FA here.