Chances are that you must have heard about Premier Futsal by now, Premier Futsal is the new multi city based franchise tournament. The Premier Futsal competition – brought to India by Portugese legend Luis Figo – kick starts on July 15 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on July 15. The first edition will be played between six city franchises with the matches being conducted in Chennai and Goa. The final will be played in Goa on July 24.Before diving into further details of the tournament let’s first learn what’s is Futsal
What is Futsal? And how it is different from Football
Futsal is a variant of association football played on a smaller field and mainly indoors. It can be considered a version of five-a-side football,and is officially recognised by both UEFA and FIFA. It is played to touchlines and all players are free to enter the penalty area and play the ball over head-height. Games are 20 minutes per half, played to a stopping clock (similar to basketball) with time-outs permitted.
The major difference between Futsal and Football beside the team composition and size of playing field are
- Unlimited substitution is allowed.
- time is stopped in dead ball situation.
- instead of throw in there is kick-in.
- instead of goalkeeper kicking the ball, he throws the ball out
- Player sent off can be substituted for after 2 minutes or other has scored
- No shoulder charges or sliding tackles is allowed
Delhi Launchpad (source: premierfutsal.com)
Premier Futsal
Premier Futsal is a first-ever multi-national Futsal league conceptualised by Indian entrepreneurs under the entity Premier Futsal Management Pvt. Ltd. It was founded by Indian entrepreneurs Abhinandan Balasubramanian, Dinesh Raj and Nithyashree Subban, backed by business magnate Xavier Britto and his wife, philanthropist Vimala Britto.
The six city based franchise are
- Kolkata – (owned by – Grassroot Entertainment Pvt. Ltd)
- Goa – (Viiking Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd)
- Kochi –(ES Entertainment)
- Chennai – (The Hindu)
- Bangalore –(Puneeth Rajkumar)
- Mumbai –(DC Design)
The tournament has already created a lot of buzz by signing Ronaldinho and Ryan Giggs, beside them the other Marquee Players are
Who are you supporting?
Chennai – Falcao
Mumbai – Giggs
Kolkata – Crespo
Goa – Ronaldinho
Bengaluru – Scholes
Kochi – Salgado#PremierFutsal— Premier Futsal (@PremierFutsalHQ) July 12, 2016
The fixture of the tournament is
https://twitter.com/PremierFutsalHQ/status/753106019602067456
You can book the tickets of the matches here
The matches would be telecast live in Sony six and ESPN FC