Stephen Finn:
U.S. Pros Should Switch to Futsal

futsal-english newsgroup

Myself and two other members of the Irish futsal fraternity are
trying to organise a trip to Madrid for the Real Madrid event. It
promises to be a great learning experience, I'll fill you in on my
findings.

By the way, on Futsal Planet there is an interesting piece of news on
the US finally hosting a futsal international against Mexico and
Canada. They've got their squad together.

This could be a first step on the road to the MISL seriously
considering switching to futsal. To be honest I can see no reason why
they shouldn't switch as soon as possible.

Indoor Soccer US-style is rubbish to watch and I honestly believe the
market that follows it would soon convert to futsal if it was
packaged right.

They probably were first attracted to Indoor Soccer because it gave
them the chance to see a version of Pro-soccer, whether that was
using walls or not probably doesn't really matter and the fact is the
ball disappears from view quite often the lower your seat is in the
stand so futsal would clearly be better for spectators.

As for the MISL, surely they would benefit more from developing real
relationships with Brazilian and Spanish futsal. We'd start sorting
the men from the boys then and futsal would probably have the third
power it needs to freshen things up a little.

Am I being unrealistic? Is it possible or pie in the sky? The point
is that indoor soccer is now facing a crossroads. MISL and WISL are
combining, which makes sense. However, they operate under different
rules already so it would seem that now is the perfect time to throw
the adaption of FIFA rules into the equation.

The USSF does not appear to have any real influence over the indoor
soccer ruling group and so it seems that they will muddle along doing
things their own way without ever having a serious debate on where
they are going and how they could make things better.

Tradition is a crutch for cowards to cling onto. It gives people an
excuse for not changing anything. for taking brave steps that may
lead to ultimately better rewards. Of course I'm speaking with a
sense of bias, futsal is my game not indoor soccer. However I have a
friend, Chris Hamilton, who played indoor soccer for Cleveland Crunch
a few years ago and played futsal with our Irish team that played in
the Dynamik Cup in Slovakia and he really felt that futsal is far
superior to Indoor Soccer, from a tactical and technical point of
view.

Perhaps the futsal community in the US need to try and stimulate a
think-tank meeting with the USSF and Indoor Soccer power-brokers
present to discuss a real business plan for marrying the two codes.