Several local football coaches are benefiting from a four-day Futsal workshop being conducted by FIFA Futsal Instructor Constantine Konstin at the Carifesta Sports Complex.
The clinic which started Friday and ends tomorrow, comes a week before Guyana hosts the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Futsal 2008 Tournament Qualifiers from March 5-9, at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Konstin disclosed at the opening session that making more facilities available for Futsal football locally could be the catalyst to faster development of sport in Guyana.
“Futsal can be played on surfaces which are easier to build and maintain and which can be more durable.
“Traditional football fields require lots of maintenance and land space and while land space is required for Futsal, a concrete court, with lighting installed, can be built in almost any community and could even be a community-based venture,” said the Instructor.
He noted that these facilities, once built, were easier to maintain and lasts a very long time.
According to Konstin, in Guyana’s situation where there seemed to be a constant problem with the unavailability of fields, due to flooding or other factors, it could be prudent to pursue the development of Futsal facilities.
The experienced coach said that Futsal required players to play in a smaller environment and because no sliding tackles were allowed, it meant that players were forced to be more tactically and technically astute in their play.
He added that unlike the field environment where a player’s technical and/or tactical errors could easily go unnoticed, in Futsal it was easier to see these blunders because the players would be playing in a tighter space.
Alluding to one method of player development which is being used in Brazil and some other countries, Konstin said that in many instances players were introduced to and encouraged to play Futsal between the ages of four and thirteen years of age, and after 13 they could then choose whether to stick with Futsal only, play soccer or play both.
Konstin noted that Brazilian football stars , Ronaldhino, Robinho, and Ronaldo all started out playing Futsal.
The workshop became a reality as a result of discussions held between the FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Colin Klass in Zurich recently.
Konstin is focal point for Futsal Training in the CONCACAF region and Guyana is the first Caribbean country in which he is conducting such training.
He has also conducted similar workshops in Cambodia, Fiji, and American Samoa.
