Ahmedabad: Gujarat State Football Association (GSFA) is hosting the 1st ever Gujarat State Futsal Club Championship 2021. To be held from 7th March to 11th March at Bhavnagar, it will be played in the hall on the wooden court of the Sports Complex of Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG) at Bhavnagar.

With this, the Gujarat state also becomes first in the country to take initiative to promote and develop the new form of football in the State. The enthusiasm of organizing team of GSFA is upbeat as a Bhavnagar based firm M/s Acrysil Ltd came forward to sponsor the Championship and the SAG agreed to provide the Indoor Wooden Court.

As many as 11 clubs are participating in this 5 days tournament named as Gujarat State Futsal Championship. Minimum 4 matches per team will be played. In accordance with the criteria prescribed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), a State should have minimum 8 participating club teams, minimum 3 matches per team and minimum 4 days of championship.

Futsal (also known as futsal or footsal) is a football game played on a hard court, smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of who is the goalkeeper. Unlimited substitutions are permitted. Futsal is also played with a smaller, harder, low-bounce ball. The surface, ball and rules together favour ball control and passing in small spaces. The emphasis of this type of football, however, is on improvisation, creativity and technique.

During sabbatical of the field football due to pandemic, GSFA actively participated in AIFF online sessions on variety of topics including futsal. Coaches and referees were trained online about various aspects of futsal. The State Women League recently and the Futsal Championship are corollary to those sessions. GSFA has many more such events in store such as Baby Leagues, Sub junior, Junior and Seniors Leagues etc for boys and girls both.