Courtesy: Vital Football - York City


Manchester Futsal v York City Futsal

York City Futsal begin the defence of their FA National Futsal Super League North Division Two crown with a visit to Manchester Futsal Club Academy at the Trafford Centre on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 5.30pm).

Winning the title as the University of York last season under the experienced leadership of Brazilian coach Junior Roberti, and keen to maintain the expansion and development of the game, the club have since become the seventh professional football club entering the FA National Futsal League - as York City.

Futsal is a five-a-side competition played on a hard-court surface with a slightly heavier ball than usual in order to promote close control, and York will be coming up against the likes of last season's runners-up Derby, Liverpool, Manchester, Durham, Loughborough and Tranmere Rovers this time around.

With that in mind, Roberti has busily recruited a host of talent across this summer to add to last term's successful squad: England international Robbie Bettson and England Under-19's Dylan McAvoy both arriving alongside their former Middlesbrough colleagues Jamie Bettson and goalkeeper Phil Codd.

Additional newcomers include Latvian top scorer Jevgenijs Drabovics (FK Jaunolaine), Italian goalkeeper Mattia Novello (Came Dosson Calcio A 5), plus Portuguese duo Joao Costa (CEF Futsal) and Fabinho Almeida (Barletta Calcio A 5), while new skipper Daniel Pedras, Miguel de Vicente, Demir Kurtovic and Mahiko Konishi remain from the championship-winning group.

Former England captain Ben Mortlock has also joined the club as assistant coach and Marcio Martins, who made over two-hundred appearances during playing spells in Brazil, Italy and England, is the new goalkeeping coach.


"We are all excited about this opening game; however we know it won't be easy," head coach Roberti admitted to York's official website. "We have started our pre-season only a couple of weeks ago and we are still waiting on new players to arrive, so we will need time to know each other and also for the new players to understand the way we want to play."

York claimed the title by just a single-point from Derby last season having won seven of their ten games in what was then only a six-club division, as Stockport, Liverpool, Loughborough and Hull also challenged alongside them.

Competition this time around is certain to be even more fierce, though, with the additions of Durham, Tranmere, Nottingham and Manchester taking that total to now eight teams following both Stockport and Hull departing.

The opening weekend of the season already witnessed a couple of interesting games, with City's latest opponents Manchester being defeated 8-4 at Durham and Tranmere only just edging past Derby 7-6.

But the defending champions now take their bow on Sunday afternoon, when other fixtures are Nottingham v Liverpool, Derby v Durham and Loughborough v Tranmere.

York City Futsal: Fabio Almeida, Jamie Bettson, Robert Bettson, Anel Blazevic, James Briars, Philip Codd, Joao Costa, Miguel De Vincente, Jevgenijs Drabovics, Lewis Elliott, Michael Gratton, Mahiko Konishi, Demir Kurtovic, Dylan McAvoy, Cory McLeod, Mattia Novello, Jack Overton, Daniel Pedras, Frederick Robinson, Florin Rotariu


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