World futsal finals heading for Thailand
The fast-growing sport of futsal will culminate this year with the FIFA Futsal World Cup, to be staged in Thailand from November 1-18.
A survey by the development committee of the world football governing body, FIFA, reveals that 150 of FIFA’s member associations are now playing the five-a-side soccer with varying levels of organisation.
The most significant statistics were to be found in the African Football Confederation (CAF), where the number of associations where futsal is now played has jumped from 21% to 53%, just behind the 57% recorded in the North, Central America and Caribbean Confederation (CONCACAF) and the 64% in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
Mongolia is a federation starting from scratch, where a formal futsal structure was created in 2008, with the support of FIFA.
Mongolian Football Association executive, Maya Lhamdorj, told FIFA.com how it all began. "In our case, the programme became a priority because of the impact the climate has on the football season.
"Winter lasts for seven months here, with temperatures always below zero, and because of that football has always been a summer sport. Our goal, though, is to make it a sport that can be played all year round."
Ian Jarrett
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