Courtesy: Sportsbyte Sunderland


Sunderland Futsal team out of the cup without kicking a ball

27/11/2012

The University of Sunderland Futsal team faced the disappointment of being knocked out of the Futsal trophy cup to rivals Newcastle despite not even kicking a ball.

Captain Richard Cowan was all set to lead his team out against Newcastle University 1sts at Northumbria University, but the game was cancelled due to the Wearsiders being unable to field a full team.

The failure to do so, however, wasn’t based on lack of interest, as key player Ioannis Klappas explained:

“It wasn’t the fact we couldn’t get the players to field a team, we have more than enough to have easily put a side out, the problem is the majority of them haven’t paid their £45 membership fee.”

The fee has to be paid by every player before the season starts, which covers all costs including transport, but more importantly their insurance is also included in case of an injury.

It’s a bitter blow for the side, who beat all expectations in their first tournament of the season last weekend, a point which was backed by Cowan:

“It’s so disappointing from being on a high one week and then a real low the next. Last week was very pleasing, as all the hard work in training paid off, and I really thought we could win this game and go on a little cup run.”

The side was unbeaten in the group stages, picking up two wins and four draws, but were unlucky not to get two wins against Northumbria’s 1st and 2nd team, with both sides equalising in the last 10 seconds.

Cowan continued to express his frustration:

“The problem is that we can get away with not having to pay the money for the tournaments as it’s out of university time, but the BUCS league is part of the university and technically we can only train at CitySpace if the fee has been paid as well. But hopefully everyone will pay up in time for the next match.”

Sunderland’s next BUCS fixture isn’t until next year, when they again take on Newcastle University 1sts on February 3rd.

However, the side will be playing in tournaments before that with training every Monday 5-6 and Friday 4-5.

There is also a new Futsal league that runs every Sunday from 4-6.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com