Courtesy: This is Leicestershire/Leicester Mercury


Futsal: Skubala is key to England's Euro bid

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Leicestershire's Michael Skubala will lead the England futsal team in their Euro qualification campaign in Turkey today.

The 30-year-old, from Narborough, is the assistant coach as England make their first appearance at the main qualifiers for a major futsal championship.

Futsal is a five-a-side version of football that is popular in South America and Europe, and is where the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Cristiano Ronaldo learned their skills.

England won their preliminary qualifying group after defeating Lithuania 4-3 and Cyprus 2-1 in January to make the main qualifiers for the first time in their history.

The squad travelled to Turkey yesterday morning ahead of their qualifying-round fixtures against Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Each team will play each other once, with the group winners progressing to the final tournament in Antwerp, Belgium. The runners-up from the seven groups, plus the best third-placed finisher, will qualify for the play-offs.

All three of England's opponents are made up of full-time professionals. Ukraine, their opponents tonight, are eighth in the world rankings and World Cup quarter-finalists.

"It's more of a test for the lads at this level, they will experience something very different," said Skubala.

"We must go into it with realistic expectations, it will be unlikely that we will get anything from the Ukraine and Slovenia games, but we might get something out of Turkey.

"We will do our best. If we can pick up a point here or there, then who knows?

"It's a good shop window for the game. In the winter, instead of being outside, youngsters should be inside playing futsal. The Spanish and Brazilian football teams have shown what futsal has done for their game."

Skubala used to play for Hinckley United and Barwell, and is now Loughborough University's head of futsal.

As well as being the head coach of the England Under-21 futsal team, he is also head of the international futsal academy, based at Loughborough, which gives players the opportunity to develop while still gaining a degree.

For more information, go to: www.internationalfutsalacademy.com






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