Petros Konstantinou

Cyprus Head Coach

www.cfa.com.cy

Into the Futsal World

I first got to know about futsal

back in 1994 when i began my
studies as a mathematician at the
University of Cyprus.
At that time it was so difficult
for young people to persue a
football carrer (no professional-
ism) so i had to move on with
my studies. The students’ futsal
league was the first ever that
took place in Cyprus. Playing
futsal was so exciting, I consid-
ered it to be much more chal-
lenging than football - high level
technical skills required, limited
space and time to react requiring
advanced tactical knowledge - so
it provided the perfect challenge
for me. This way I decided to
focus hundred 100% to it.

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In 1996 we took part in the World Student’s Championship in Finland getting
the opportunity to play at high level international competition.
The Cyprus Futsal League and the national team were established in 1999.
Guided by my devotion to futsal, I persued a masters degree in Sports Man-
agement (at an English university - Leicester) with a dissertation for its Strate-
gic Development in Cyprus. With the assistance of the Cyprus Football Asso-
ciation the plan has been put to effect since 2005. I began my coaching carrer
in 2005 and luckilly in 2006 I was appointed as the national team coach.

At this point it is really important to point out that, the most difficult job was
made at the beginning years of the national team while we suffered our heavy
defeats on international level. It is a quite unavoidable stage in order to get the
experience of top international competition and mana
ge to present a good level team at a later stage. All
credit should go to my first coach of the national
team Sofoullis Stylianou who managed to
persusade the association to create the futsal
team and took the really difficult mission.

CFA

The Cyprus Association is trying its best to support

the sport and promote it in our country. I can say that currently it might be
number two in popularity after football. The Futsal Committee under the presi-
dency of George Michanicos has been doing an excellent job the past four
years during which we have made important steps in the development of our
league. Last year we had the FIFA coaching seminar conducted by Mico Mar-
tic, that really gave the tools needed for coaches to really improve their players
and teams. It is also important to say that we are lucky to have a group of clubs
that have been doing a very good job in order to work on a professional basis
despite the limited financial resources.
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 Future

Currently we have five players under the age of twenty that have been mem-
bers of the national team for the past two years and I can definetely say that
we have nothing to worry about the future of the national team. We are lucky
to have some clubs who have currently produced a number of very good
futsal players under the age of ninteen as well. We intend to have a national
team playing at least at the same level that is currently performing. It is very
difficult to do this because all nations are working very hard to develop them-
selves and we need to consider this very seriously. We are a small country and
it is always very difficult to win any opposition, we have to be really careful
in the future and present a team that is keeping its tactical display updated
continuously.

The Dream

I wish that futsal someday becomes

an Olympic Sport - a key point in my
opinion in terms of finance that will
allow it to grow and become popular
even more. I am certain that some
day, futsal will become as popular as
football. Accidentally or whatever,
its nature as a hybrid of football, bas-
ketball, handball or even waterpolo,
it makes it very spectacular and it is
inevitable that it will be a major suc-
cess internationally.

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Number of players: 8+2 goalkeepers.
Tactical 3vs1
Number of balls: 11. One in play and five
above each goalkpost net.

Space: Half pitch 20x20 divided in two

halves
Purpose: To improve counter attacks of 3vs1
(offensively) to improve the defense accordingly.

Directions.
In each half we have three attackers and one defender.
The goalkeeper begins the drill, throwing the ball to the other half to one of
the attackers who need to score playing with one touch of the ball while the
defender is trying to stel the ball. There are two outcomes. If they score, their
goalkeeper repeats his initiation. If they lose the ball the defender or the goal-
keeper is trying to pass to the other half to his attackers who will play the same
way (one touch). The defender can switch roles with his teammate attackers
accordingly.

Variations: Try a limitation of time or number of passes.

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