Courtesy: Southampton FC


Football and futsal development open evening

22nd September 2016

After another extremely successful year of the futsal and education scholarship, Saints Foundation has confirmed the first open evening for the intake of students for September 2017.

The open evening will be held on Tuesday 4th October, inside the Markus Liebherr Lounge at St Mary’s Stadium.

Having provided a futsal-only course for the past five years, it has now been decided to also include a football programme aligned to the futsal scholarship.

This gives prospective students the opportunity to play competitively in both football and futsal on the same sixth-form college BTEC programme, which will be the only one in Southampton that offers weekly fixtures against other Premier League and Football League clubs for both sports.

Whilst representing the Saints on a futsal court and a football pitch, students will also undertake a BTEC extended National Diploma in Sport – equivalent to 3 A-levels – which will give them the perfect platform ahead of university or further football scholarships in USA.

As well as providing a first-class education for the two years, various work experience within different departments in the football club and Saints Foundation is also on offer, helping to provide a lot of the necessary life skills and experience needed to work within the industry.

Education Manager Mark Gamble said: “I have been involved with the Education department in the foundation since it started in 2011. To see it grow from a programme with just 16 male students to 70 plus students now in 2016, also including a female futsal programme, is something I am extremely proud of.

"We want to now take the next step and provide a football element to the programme to aid the development of the students and provide them with an elite platform to excel and take back to their respective 11-a-side clubs.

"Coaching and playing futsal, in my opinion, is the best way to do this as it provides students with all the finer elements of football in a smaller area which they can implement back into their own game within an 11-a-side environment. Playing futsal and football on a weekly basis is something that can only improve any aspiring young futsal or football player.”

The open evening will be in the Markus Liebherr Lounge, at St Mary’s Stadium, from 7pm until 8.30pm on Tuesday 4th October. Please contact mgamble@saintsfc.co.uk for information on attending the evening or with any further questions.



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