Commentary:
Changes Overdue at U.S. Futsal
By Tim Sheldon
Changes are needed at U.S. Futsal. In fact, they're way overdue.
U.S. Soccer needs to drop its laissez faire attitude and take a serious look.
I originally started futsalonline.com in order
to advocate futsal and cover its growth in the U.S., but most of the time I've been
covering the growth of futsal everywhere except the U.S.
The U.S. Futsal Federation conducts a so-called national tournament every
year, and U.S. pro indoor off-the-wall leagues send U.S. teams to international
tournaments, but, aside from that, there's almost nothing going on in with futsal the U.S.
I originally started writing about futsal in the early 1980s when I serving as associate
editor of Soccer America Magazine. I saw some futsal games in the San Francisco
Bay Area, thought it was a great sport and still think it's a great sport.
I talked about the game with Osvaldo Garcia, the original president of the U.S. Minisoccer
Federation, which later became U.S. Futsal, and wrote as much as I could about the sport.
The current president and chief executive officer of U.S. Futsal, Alex
Para, was a support person at that time, performing administrative duties for the
Minisoccer Federation.
By far, Garcia and Jorge Bordt, a tennis professional in the S.F. Bay Area, were the
dynamic forces behind the early development of minisoccer-futsal in the U.S. They trained
a U.S. select team and were almost immediately playing in international competitions. They
set up a working agreement with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and were scheduling
seminars all over the U.S. They brought in major sponsors such as Levi's.
Later, under Para's presidency, those developments atrophied and went dead.
Certainly, there have been a few good futsal developments in the U.S. The
World United Futsal Club in San Francisco has won the U.S. senior men's title repeatedly
and has played frequently in international tournaments. James Oman has staged the
very-successful Stop the Violence Futsal Tournament in Washington D.C. for several years
and has conducted another tournament at Disney World in Orlando. Futsal organizers in
Kansas City have developed an excellent youth program that includes large, well-run
tournaments. And there have been some other good developments at the local level.
But U.S. Futsal under Para has provided very little leadership, and it has been almost
impossible to communicate with Para. I supposedly served as an "information
representative" for Para and U.S. Futsal for several years but could never find out
what was going on! Para was so guarded in his comments that there was never anything to
report. This was a 180-degree change from what I was able to accomplish working with
Garcia and Bordt.
I worked with promoters such as Oman to help publicize their tournaments, placing stories
in publications such as the Washington Post, but never received support from
Para. All he seemed to want to do was control the sport in this country.
We're talking here about a span of about 16 years since Para forced
Garcia out as head of the U.S. Minisoccer Federation, and when you compare the
accomplishments of U.S. Futsal with what Garcia accomplished with U.S. Minisoccer, or
what's being done elsewhere in the world with futsal, it's clear that nothing has been
accomplished of any substance by Para.
Just recently a professional futsal league has started in Switzerland and UEFA and made
major strides in promoting futsal competitions. Spain and Brazil have very successful
futsal leagues and major television coverage. Australia has developed futsal successfully
for many years. The Tiger 5's tournament has been been a major success in Singapore.
At this point, U.S. Futsal should have enabled the development of a professional futsal
league with at least minimum television coverage. I've seen low-budget beach soccer
tournaments televised on U.S. cable channels, with U.S. select teams facing Brazil and
Holland, and there's no reason why this couldn't have been done by U.S. Futsal.
The so-called national tournament is very flawed. There has been no real
national representation, and the conduct of the tournament has been criticized by many as
being not up to professional standards.
Para has trademarked the term "futsal" in the U.S. and has sent letters of
warning to persons attempting to promote futsal events in this country - a preposterous
attempt to corner the market. "Futsal" is the international term for the sport
used by FIFA, and I'm sure the people who assign trademarks in this country don't know
anything about that.
I don't know how Para thinks he has the ethical justification to trademark futsal.
It's clear that changes are needed at U.S. Futsal and that U.S. Soccer really needs to pay
attention. I've waited too long to write about this because I didn't want to rock the
boat. But the boat really needs rocking now.
I'm going to continue writing about this until changes are made. That's the most important
function of futsalonline.com now.