AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: Three-day online Introductory Futsal Certificate course organised by the All India Football Federation have commenced on Friday (November 6, 2020). Sixty participants have enrolled for the course whereas Mr. Joshua Vaz and Mr. Shailesh Karkera are the instructors. Mr. Sunando Dhar, CEO, Leagues, in his opening address, mentioned that there is "huge potential" for futsal in India.

"There is huge potential for futsal in India. We had planned the maiden edition of futsal league at Shillong in 2020 but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it could not see the daylight. Twelve clubs from Hero Indian Super League, Hero I-League and Hero Second Division had already submitted their nomination but unfortunately, we had to postpone the same," Mr. Dhar informed.

Moreover, he mentioned that futsal has already been introduced into the curriculum of Golden Baby Leagues in order to take Indian Football forward together.

"Our aim of organising Golden Baby Leagues is to grow the interest level amongst the children and make them comfortable with the ball. The purpose can be served through futsal where every player gets more involved in the game. We have introduced futsal for the six-year-olds and above so they hone their skill level from this age itself."

Vaz highlighted the Futsal coaching modules and the requirements to apply for the same.

"Under the Asian Football Confederation, there are four levels of futsal coaching - level one, two, three and Pro. Anyone, who is 18 years old, can apply for the level one course. Apart from these, there are Futsal goalkeeping and fitness coaching courses also. For goalkeeping and fitness coaching, there are three levels - one, two and three," he stated.

"Futsal is all about skillset and more touches. All India Football Federation has a detailed plan to take Futsal to more people across the country and on behalf of AIFF, I wish the upcoming coaches all the luck. I feel they have joined the course at the tight time," Mr. Dhar added.

Sixty participants are as follows:

Clive Nolan Mascarenhas, Nilanjan Kumar Guha, Archishman Biswas, Milana Naik, Noor Alam, Ramen Debnath, Bimal Chowdhury, Kime Dokho, Sachinder Singh, Ryan Roy Shah, Prolay Kr Dutta, Ujjwal Deep Lama, Bhargab Guhathakurta, Tushar Soodan, Aditi Chauhan, Abir Ranjan Deb, Subhashis Dutta, Phurbu Tsering, Joel Richard Williams, Karan Deb, Prithvi Jagan Jagadeesan, Sumit Kumar, Mohudoom Naina Seyed Hussain, Sandeep Kumar, Prashant Shiv Rana, Ernesto Jacques Ramos, Rajarajan Srinivasan, Krishnan Kalidasan, M Aiswaryan Pillai, Antony Xavier Tharthees, Hashim Veeran A, Kirti Kashyap, Muhammed Sirajuddeen TI, Masood Maqbool, Gaurav Poonia, Assis Kunjivappu Panikka Veettil, Naren Thapa, Anto Vinod Stephan, Krishnakumar E A, Nihal Matthew Fernandez, Tanmay Sarkar, Baby Josh Ts, Rohan Kevin, Suman Dev, Karthick A, Prasanth S, Loitongbam Kamlakanta Singh, Chandan Kumar, Sanjeeva Rongpi, Sumit Kanyan, Aishwarya Kumar Sandhir, Noufal Basheer, Jagdish Chandila, Kiran Gopalakrishnan, Ujjal Chakraborty, Prasanjit Bara, Rishi Raj Prudhvi Dara, Mithesh S Lukose and Akshay Veer Joshi.