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The excitement of the ebb and flow of attack and counter-attack is underpinned by the technical brilliance of so many of the world’s greatest futsal players.
FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) at this year’s World Cup have been diligently working on a new approach to technical and tactical appraisal which is now consistent across all FIFA competitions. Considering futsal as a game in its own right, played and followed by millions within the football family globally, the TSG have been looking at many aspects of futsal at this elite-level tournament while considering the impact on development and the opportunities for the format to grow in the future. With data collected across all 52 matches, this is the first time there has been such a comprehensive review of every second of every game in futsal, providing an unparalleled level of data that seeks to challenge or support the perceptions of game play and individual participation. The data and TSG evaluation is also intended to provide valuable insights to support our commitment to the growth and development of futsal worldwide.
The data collated from the 52 matches of this FIFA Futsal World Cup has also provided further insights for considering how futsal can contribute towards the development of football players from a young age. Young players, both boys and girls, require a varied diet of football experiences in the influential period of development between five and 12 years of age, and futsal provides a multitude of possibilities for improving and evolving a youngster’s range of experience.
Transferables
We consider football and futsal as a partnership, a pairing that has mutual benefits. The games are not competing with each other but rather collaborating. While respecting the format of each, we can see from the data that there are ‘transferables’.
Anecdotally, futsal coaches have promoted for some time an increase in ball contact for every player within a game, with the view that having more ball contact develops confidence on the ball and allows players to experiment and develop technical competence and understanding through a variety of technical experiences (although this approach has rarely been evidence-based). The same can be said for the impact of one-on-one duels and indeed the more active involvement of the goalkeeper in build-up play and game-changing distribution, to give examples. Now, from this World Cup data, we can see clearly how futsal can contribute in a unique way to wider player development across the football family and what the additional role of futsal can be.
The TSG outcomes will also include developing a unified futsal language which is correlated with the new FIFA football language that closer aligns the formats for the benefit of understanding, knowledge transfer and development.
We looked initially at key statistics which we compared to football, taking the recent FIFA Arab Cup 2021 tournament as our point of comparison. Where it was possible to draw upon identical amounts of data, we have specifically observed the following.
Key data
All Stats are comparing the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 to the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 (Football)
In terms of passing, Ricardinho was the player with most passes across 6 games (658) with an average of 166 per 40 minutes. In comparison the individual stats leader from the FIFA Arab Cup was UAE’s Mohammed Alattas (UAE), who recorded 42 passes/crosses per 40 minutes (95 per 90 minutes), 414 in total, across 393 minutes played. Team-mate Abdullah Ramadan had 34 per 40, 315 total passes in 372 minutes while Tunisia’s Ferjani Sassi had 24 per 40 mins, 358 in total over 589 minutes.
For individual take-ons, Brazil’s Pito led the way in the Futsal, carrying out 11 per 40 minutes. In the Arab Cup, Algeria’s Belaili topped the list by recording 2.3 per 40 minutes and 5.1 per 90 minutes.
At the team level, Portugal recorded the most in the Futsal with 169 take-ons in total. In the Arab Cup, it was Algeria who led the way, with 97 in total.
Kazakhstan’s Birzhan Orazov made 77 tackles across six games (18.5 per 40 minutes). Leading the way in the Arab Cup was Algeria’s Sofiane Bendebka with 48 (3 per 40 minutes and 7 per 90 minutes) in comparison.
At the team level, Kazakhstan produced 279 tackles and 73 pass interceptions with retention after 6 games; Portugal had 239 and 94; Paraguay registered 201 and 85; and Argentina 210 and 70. In the Arab Cup, Tunisia produced 261 and 51; Algeria 258 and 54; and Egypt 237 and 50.
The role of the pivot was also analysed with Zicky and Ferrao receiving 56 and 32 passes per 40 minutes respectively. Looking at similar roles in the Arab Cup, Baghdad Bounedjah (Algeria) had most per 40 minutes with 10.3 (23.1 per 90 minutes) and Mohamed Sherig (Egypt) produced 10.
Looking at goalkeeping, the Solomon Islands’ Antony Talo led the rest with 32 goal preventions per 40 minutes. Palestine’s Amr Kaddura was the leader of the same metric for the Arab Cup with 2.1 preventions (4.6 per 90 minutes).
In terms of goalkeeper distribution, it is no surprise to see Kazakhstan’s Higuita leading the way with 535 passes in total at a rate of 78.7 per 40 minutes. In the Arab Cup, Algeria keeper Raïs Mbolhi was the key link with 10.6 passes per 40 minutes (23.9 per 90 minutes).
There were 301 goals during the Futsal World Cup at 5.8 goals per match, in comparison to 100 during the Arab Cup at 3.1 goals per game.
Benefits
Playing experiences shape a player’s engagement in football for the rest of their life and while many players around the world play both futsal and football we will also consider how engagement in both formats help keep players active in later life. Honing and refining an understanding of futsal through playing experience in our younger years supports re-engagement in later life – an activity which provides wellbeing, social, psychological and physical benefits.
We also recognise the huge benefits offered by futsal in certain geographical regions of the world where challenges posed by weather conditions and facilities – such as the inability to grow grass football pitches all year round – provide barriers to player development, be it in summer or winter. However, the benefits in terms of both welfare and technical development that futsal brings cannot be underestimated and we encourage greater engagement with the format.
Specifically for women’s and girls’ talent development, futsal can play an increasingly important role as its talent pathway evolves and grows, presenting more playing opportunities for the fact that fewer participants are required on each team and there is a different degree of participation in play with the heavier ball and rolling substitutions. Futsal offers fun and meaningful playing opportunities which encourage active involvement and enable the development of fundamental technical assets in every player which are then transferable when introducing girls to football.
The FIFA TSG will continue to review this informative and constructive data over the coming months and provide further outcomes and analysis to support the engagement of futsal as a key development tool for football, while strengthening our support for futsal as a game in its own right.
It is important to understand more about how futsal contributes and to consider the synergies and opportunities presented by the small-sided format to support the wider development of skill sets and unit play within the 11-a-side game.
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