The inaugural Fiji Football Southern Zone Secondary Schools Futsal Championship kicked off yesterday at the headquarters in Vatuwaqa.
Schools from Suva, Nasinu and Nausori convened in numbers at the Fiji FA Academy, marking the start of a promising future of futsal in the country.
The man behind the development program and National Futsal coach Jerry Sam was surprised by the major turnout.
“I’m really happy with the schools that are part of this futsal league. We have around 16 schools participating and it’s good to start somewhere,” Sam said.
“I was really surprised to see families and teachers coming in numbers to support and I think we are on the right path to develop futsal here in Fiji.”
The idea is to develop specialized futsal players. “The motive is to scout elite players. We know that it’s high time now that we identify these players and develop them through this pathway.
“We want to have futsal players, it’s OK if a player is playing two codes but we want specialized players for this code because it will be easy to work with them,” Sam added.
The league will run for six weeks.
It’s success will pave the way for similar competitions in the north and western divisions.
