With the launch of Premier Futsal in India from July 15-25 across eight venues, the fans await the emergence of a relatively unknown sport from the shadows. Abhinanandan Subramanian, CEO, Premier Futsal, in an interview with Basil Sylvester Pinto, talks about what will make this fast-paced, energy-packed game a possible hit. Excerpts:
Q: Football has been languishing as a sport in the country. Given this fact, and futsal being a similar sport, how do you see futsal in India grow with the launch of Premier Futsal?
AS: On the footballing front obviously there have been records taken. Be it the ISL or even the Prime Minister coming out and supporting the growth of football in our country. I think over the next 10-20 years, India will come out of that whole sleeping giant tag in football. And that is exactly why futsal is equally important. If you look at major footballing pockets of the world -- Brazil, Spain, Italy, Portugal, even England -- all of them are now using futsal as the absolute grassroots level development programme up to the age of even 15 in many places. Futsal aids itself to a lot of clear technical skills which make people superior. If you picture Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, they have come out from futsal.
Q: So you see Premier Futsal become a big hit in the country?
AS: I see it become popular in India for multiple reasons: 1) The sport itself is really very high-octane, end to end with a lot of goals; the way Indians like it. 2) Even though it is indoors, the production quality can make it look really good on television, easy to the eyes of the viewers. 3) The quality of players we are bringing to India are the best, current futsal players. We have obviously signed Falcão, which clearly indicates a lot of names being brought to the futsal world which aids itself to great quality of the sport. The other marquee futsal legends will be announced by the end of the first week of June. What we are doing is bringing in the football advocates for the game of futsal. People who watch and follow football will be intrigued why the guys are playing this version of sport. Futsal over the last 20-30 years has driven more away from being a version of football and establishing itself as a sport. So much so that the talent pool in football and futsal is very different. It is not cricket where the same set of players is playing T20, ODIs and Tests. The mixture of all this and the sport itself being the hero, we believe that India will love Premier Futsal.
Q: With the announcement of Falcão being signed for Premier Futsal made public for a while now, why the delay in making it known the other marquee/ international player signings?
AS: The players’ roster will be announced at the end of the first week of June. Falcão, we obviously wanted to out there because he is the grandest name of futsal ever. That figures the right sort of interest globally for this sport. Since announcing Falcão, we have people conducting leagues in Spain, Portugal telling us that we want our players to come in too. We wanted that because we want to make sure that the talent pool we bring to India is innumerable. And that is why we wanted to announce Falcão being the Pele of Futsal which serves as the right signal for any property of futsal. All the other names will be announced around June 6 or 7. As of now, we would like to keep it confidential. We are in the process of getting all these different players signed up and also we will be announcing the franchisees in due course. So we cannot reveal all the players now.
Q: With the magnitude of the competition, do you have the necessary infrastructure in place for first edition of the competition?
AS: In terms of infrastructure, futsal is played on indoor surfaces/courts like that of basketball, volleyball, badminton so we have that infrastructure required to support the sport. Futsal is played on this surface called terra flex and in terms of infrastructure that is readily available. Let us take for example, the main Pro Kabbadi venues are the same places our league is being conducted. So we are being well supported.
Q: But Goa is not a Pro Kabbadi venue…
AS: In the State, we will be hosting our games at the Peddem Indoor Stadium, Mapusa.
Q: How would the sport help develop a sportsperson?
A: To quote Falcão, futsal instantaneously improves flair, technique, passing, ball control, the overall awareness of your team-mate in a footballer. The player improves on all these skills because he is touching the ball a lot more, it is end to end and he is back and forth defending and being on the offensive. In terms of skill development, it is much faster as the transition of an individual player in terms of abilities is much more enhanced.
Q: Looking ahead towards the first edition of Premier Futsal, you have had your fair share of controversies. Tell us more…
AS: We are a private league and we are partnered to the Futsal Association of India (FAI), who have run domestic league televised on national television before this. In terms of legitimacy and authorization, I think we are well-balanced. Obviously yes, we are not authorized by FIFA but AMF (Asociación Mundial de Futsal) as a parallel governing body for futsal in the world. We have gone with AMF and their representatives of India have run domestic football league and so they know the much space much better in India than anyone else.
Q: Why should sports lovers follow futsal?
AS: This is the coolest sport they have never heard of. I think that is the singular statement we would like to make to everyone. It is funny that India has always played futsal without calling it futsal. It is not that everyone has access to large football fields where they play 11-a-side football. So what we end doing is playing with five friends on either end on a smaller court. It is just that we are so accustomed to futsal that we will get it right away. Our biggest message is to sport-viewing audience and sports lovers that we want to entertain through futsal given that we are bringing the best talent to the game here. We are sure they would love it.
