Futsal Making Debut in South American Games
From Steve Harris
futsal-english newsgroup
6 Aug 2002
As I saw news snippets about the "South American Games" and
futsal, I nodded to myself and vaguely thought, "Oh, is it that time of the year
again...?"
The fact of the matter, however, is that I had no knowledge whatsoever regarding the South
American Games, nor did I have any recollection of there ever being a futsal exhibition
within that competition. So what's this all about anyway?
A look at the official site (http://www.brasil2002.org.br)
tells us that the "South American Games are South America's multisports games.
Athletes from countries in Central America and the Caribbean also take part in them."
So this is a sort of South/Central American Olympics, and indeed the organization in
charge (ODESUR: South American Sports Organization) falls under the umbrella of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The games have been held held Olympic style every four years since 1978,
although organization of this most recent edition was difficult. The site explains:
"The 2002 Games had originally been scheduled to take place in the Argentinean city
of Cordoba, which gave up their organization. Transferred to Bogota, in Colombia, the
competition was later on cancelled Brazil then presented itself as a candidate to hos the
Games between August 1 and 11, in four cities - Belem, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro and Sao
Paulo - and won by 11 to 3 votes in the ODESUR Extraordinary General Meeting held on April
18, in Asuncion, Paraguay." (It goes without saying that the economic crisis in
Argentina and security issues in Colombia made organization an impossibility, but it was
not appropriate for the official site to go into such dirty details.)
One might be tempted to conclude that futsal would be an integral part of any Latin
American athletic competition this extensive, but in fact futsal is making its debut at
the South American Games - 24 years after the event's inception. And this is at a
competition that features sports such as karate and bowling; in fact, a given sport only
requires four entries to be included in the program. Why on earth did it take futsal so
long to be included?
According to the official website, "It is the first time that futsal - one of the
most popular sports among Brazilians - is in the program of such an important multi-sports
competition, which may be a first step towards its inclusion on the Olympic program.
Futsal was included in the Games at the suggestion of the president of the Brazilian
Olympic Committee (COB) and of the Brazil 2002 Organizing Committee, Carlos Arthur
Nuzman."
Actually, Mr. Nuzman is an IOC member, and probably a frustrated IOC
member at that, as the entire nation of Brazil is dying to see futsal become part of the
Olympics.
I vaguely recalled Nuzman's name in news stories of last year or the year before, and,
sure enough, there was an interview with him at www.futsalbrasil.com.br
some time ago. It was a fairly inconclusive exchange that ended with this response to the
question "do you think that futsal will become part of the 2004 Olympics?"
"It will depend on an agreement between IOC, FIFA and the Organizing Committee of
the 2004 Olympic Games."
Well, we know that futsal is not going to happen at the 2004 Olympics, but it seems to me
that the inclusion of the sport in this South American Games will be an extremely
influential factor in convincing the IOC that futsal can no longer be left out of the
Olympic program. Doubtless Mr. Nuzman and his Brazilian colleagues had this in mind when
molding the final plans for the Games. As last-minute saviours of the event, they probably
had carte blanche, and it appears that they used their leverage to add a page to futsal's
ongoing history. This is a significant event for those of us in the world futsal
community.
I am genuinely surprised to see only six countries (Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay) participating in the first futsal competition of the
South American games, as the 2000 CONMEBOL championship (the first edition) featured a
field of nine (all of the above plus Venezuela, Peru and Chile). It could be that the
other countries did not have time to put together futsal national sides on short notice.
Still, this is a step in the right direction, and I would imagine that the next goal is to
get futsal into the Pan American Games.
As for the teams participating, Brazil appears to be fielding exactly the same team that
lost to Spain in the final of the Real Madrid Centenary final earlier this year:
Lavoisier, Franklin, Euler, Cico, Andre, Manoel Tobias, Pablo, Fininho, Indio,
Vinicius, Leitao, Neto. Falcao made the trip to Madrid but is not going to be in the South
American Games, as he has only recently made the decision to come back to futsal. Ferretti
is still coaching the team.
Argentina is entering its foreign legion of Marcelo Jimenez, Rodrigo Petillo, Diego
Giustozzi, Leandro Planas, and Carlos Sanchez, along with a field that could include
Guatemala 2000 veterans Javier Guisande, Fernando Wilhelm, Jose Mandayo, and Augusto
Monaco, as well as Enrique Ferron, Esteban Arellano, Leonardo Rodriguez, Gustavo Barbosa,
Fernando Lavezzi, and Hernan Garcias. Long-time manager Fernando Larranaga is in charge.
I have no information on the other teams, but the schedule is as follows.
August 6
6:00 p.m. - Ecuador - Argentina
7:30 p.m. - Uruguay - Paraguay
9:00 p.m. - Brazil - Bolivia
August 7
6:00 p.m. - Ecuador - Bolivia
7:30 p.m. - Argentina - Uruguay
9:00 p.m. - Brazil - Paraguay
August 8
6:00 p.m.- Ecuador - Uruguay
7:30 p.m. - Paraguay - Bolivia
9:00 p.m. - Brazil - Argentina
August 9
6:00 p.m. - Uruguay - Bolivia
07:30 p.m. - Argentina - Paraguay
09:00 p.m. - Brazil - Ecuador
August 10
03:00 p.m. - Argentina - Bolivia
04:30 p.m. - Brazil - Uruguay
06:00 p.m. - Ecuador - Paraguay
August 11
03:30 p.m. - Third place
05:00 p.m. - Final