Registration is now open for the inaugural Southampton Youth Futsal League Season. We will be running a six team league, on Thursday evenings, with age groups at U10, U12, and U14. The majority of the interest we received was from boys teams, however we will offer it as an open mixed league, should there be any desire from girls teams to enter.
The attached document outlines a lot of the plans we have for the league, and an idea based on functional and practical rules. For example, for now, it's just not feasible to administer games with a stop clock, so we will use a running clock. And we will play with no timeouts, but will instead play games of four quarters instead of two halves, providing natural stoppages where coaches can impart their input onto their teams. Another aspect is that U10 should not be playing 5v5 futsal in an ideal world, but until we create it, we're not living in an ideal world. So for the time being, U10 will play 5v5 futsal as if they are U12s, with us hopefully being able to shift to the recommended 4v4 format within the coming seasons.
The basics:
Where is it? Oasis Academy Mayfield, Southampton, SO19 9NA
When is it? Thursday evenings, with games kicking off at 17:30/18:30 or 19:30.
When does it start? The first round of games will be on 5th of October for the U10 group. U12 will play on October 12th, and U14 on October 19th.
How often are games? Games will be once every three weeks. There will be occasional breaks due to school holidays.
How many matches will we play? The first round of games will be friendlies. Then there will be five more game weeks, which is league play. Every team is guaranteed six games (one friendly + five league games). Then there are playoffs, which provide an extra chance to play for those who qualify for the semi-finals and then final.
How does the league work? There will be one league of six teams, who will face each other once. Standard three points for a win, one for a draw. Championships in futsal are decided by playoffs. For better or worse, this is how it works across the world, and we will emulate that here. The top three teams at the end of league play will qualify directly for the playoffs, with fourth and fifth placed into a wildcard match, attempting to gain the remaining semi-final place. The team in sixth place unfortunately has their season finished. The semi-finals will be seeded, with the winners qualifying for finals night, where the finals from all three age groups will happen one after the other. The winners of those finals will be crowned champions.
When does it finish? The regular season will continue into March, with the playoffs being in April and May, and the finals on May 9th.
Girls or boys? There has not been enough interest to run a separate girls event, so we will run it as a boys event, with girls teams 100% able to join if they wish.
What if we want more futsal? We have proposed several dates where we will look to run tournaments throughout the Sep-May football season. These are open entry to anyone who wants to be involved. The likelihood is that if this league goes well, we will look to run events over the summer too, when there is considerably more availability in sports halls.
I like the idea of futsal, but I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing: In addition to the FA resources and courses, we'll be looking to run our own coach education group sessions throughout the season. It is our aim to build a community of coaches and clubs that work together rather than against each other, for the benefit of all involved. We also have the Solent Futsal Coaches Community online. This is a place where local coaches can connect, share ideas, and look at some of the great info and resources shared from the world of futsal.
Match Fees
Match fees will be £30.00 per team per match with games being 48 minutes long (4 periods of 12 minutes) with a continuous clock.
£30.00 x 6 games (1 friendly and 5 League Games) = £180.00
There will then be play off games and finals on top.
Places will be issued on a first come first serve bases and we can only accommodate 6 teams per age group.
Squad Sizes
You can register up to 16 players to pick a squad from for each match (we will need to have a list of all player names, dates of birth, and FA's to go on the Whole Game Portal).
If you'd like to register, send us a message at SouthamptonYouthFutsalLeague@gmail.com