Afifa Female Futsal Academy School Clinic

Mission statement

AFIFA Female Futsal Academy (AFFA) is a professionally run Melbourne-based academy that is affiliated with the Female Futsal League. AFFA aims to provide females with a platform designed to develop their futsal skills and knowledge of the game. AFFA further aims to provide females with a safe and inclusive environment as it is open to all females from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Vision

As a female-based academy, it will strictly be restricted to female participants, facilitators and spectators; with the exception of males under the age of 7. Our vision is to increase female participation in the game of futsal by providing them the freedom to play and pursue avenue that does not conflict with their cultural or religious beliefs.

What is futsal?

Futsal comes from the merging of the Spanish/Portuguese words for ‘football’ (futbol or futebol) and the French/Spanish word for ‘indoor (salon or sala).

Futsal is one of the world’s fastest growing indoor sports that appeals to both the young and old. Futsal is a 5-a-side game played on a flat indoor pitch with a specific ball that has reduce bounce to it.

Futsal was invented in 1930 by Juan Carlos Ceriani: a physical education teacher.  Mr Ceriani wanted to design a kind of football game that people can play indoors no matter the weather condition. It is currently played in over 100 countries and boasts millions of players worldwide.

Why play futsal?

Our school program is compliant with the Victorian P.E curriculum for grades 3 to year 10. Futsal will help students, within those age ranges, further develop their athletic skills (i.e., movement skills and concepts, dribbling, shooting and passing) and overall confidence. By introducing futsal to these students’, it will foster their appreciation of the game whilst introducing them to an alternate form of soccer/football. It is a skill-oriented game that will enhance the students’ creativity.  As the children will be playing on a smaller court (in comparison to your traditional football/soccer fields), they will get more touches on the ball which will then improve:
  1. .Their reaction time;
  2. .Critical thinking and decision-making skills. As the game frequently brings the players into regular one-on-one situation, it will encourage the children to into quick-decision making as to how they can overcome their opponent/s;
  3. .Their creativity in determining how they can circumvent their opponent in a small space;
  4. .Ball control;
  5. .Their health. Futsal is a physically demanding sport which is quite beneficial as it further develops the students’ physical conditioning.
  6. .Their ability to play fair as the laws of the game prohibits contact between players; and
  7. .Their teamwork and confidence.