Following the announcements in December & January of the entry of England into senior men’s & women’s competitions, we have, understandably, had an influx of questions from the community. We have assimilated these with their respective answers below. England Futsal wants to be clear that throughout this process the FA Futsal Committee were fully supportive of the initial proposals for both teams (including a fully funded & a mixed economy model with different options on the table).
How have we got to now?
The existing FA contract with England Futsal grants us permission to set up and run England U19 male and female teams as a pilot, to be reviewed at the end of this (23-24) season. The request to set up and run any Senior England Team sits outside the existing contractual agreement, which requires sign off at different levels (of The FA Senior Executive and Board).
In October 2023, The FA received an invitation from UEFA to submit a team into the qualification for the Men’s UEFA European Futsal Championship 2024-26. Following dialogue with The FA, England Futsal (EF) were invited on the 14th November to submit a proposal. England Futsal invested time and money to develop that proposal which was shared amongst FA Executive colleagues; the National Game Board Directors; and the FA’s futsal committee during December.
In December 2023, The FA received an invitation from UEFA to submit a women’s team into the 2024/25 UEFA European Qualifying Competition and for the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup. Similarly, to the approach taken with the Men’s team entry, England Futsal were again invited to submit a proposal but only on the proviso that it was made using the FA directive’s feedback as part of the men’s process as context.
What have the FA sanctioned for England Futsal?
The principle of granting permission for England Futsal to enter any senior England Team in UEFA or FIFA Competitions has been agreed at Senior Executive and Board level BUT this must be self-funded by England Futsal.
Simply put (and subject to funding), Lions will roar at the UEFA European Futsal Championship 2024-26 (first fixture December 2024) and the Lionesses will roar at the UEFA Futsal Women’s World Cup qualifying in 2024.
What financial resource are the FA Investing in EF to do the above?
£0.
The existing agreement confirms that the FA will not provide funding or resource for the England U19 National Team programme.
There is a clear directive from all levels of the business that no FA funding or resource is available for the newly sanctioned senior teams. The position remains, that the FA is unable or unwilling to provide any financial or human resource.
Both Technical Divisions have budget and headcount restraints and require all their resource to fund the existing Men’s and Women’s elite programmes and Para Performance.
What additional / other resources are the FA offering to EF?
£0.
The existing agreement confirms that the FA will not provide funding or resource for the England U19 National Team programme.
There is a clear directive from all levels of the business that no FA funding or resource is available for the newly sanctioned senior teams. The position remains, that the FA is unable or unwilling to provide any financial or human resource.
Both Technical Divisions have budget and headcount restraints and require all their resource to fund the existing Men’s and Women’s elite programmes and Para Performance.
What Value In Kind (VIK) are the FA making available to EF?
£0.
The existing agreement confirms that the FA will not provide funding or resource for the England U19 National Team programme.
There is a clear directive from all levels of the business that no FA funding or resource is available for the newly sanctioned senior teams. The position remains, that the FA is unable or unwilling to provide any financial or human resource.
Both Technical Divisions have budget and headcount restraints and require all their resource to fund the existing Men’s and Women’s elite programmes and Para Performance.
How are EF planning on resourcing the models?
In terms of funding the programme, a mixed economy funding model, led by England Futsal with no support from the FA, sourcing funding and value in kind support from a number of sources has been approved. Our ambition as of January 2024, is to explore and consult across the following four domains:
- Commercial sponsorship using the England Futsal assets for national teams;
- Football ecosystem investment;
- Sport ecosystem investment;
- Value in Kind agreements;
- Crowdfunding (including from players, coaches and the MDT).
How much are EF seeking to raise and by when?
England Futsal have developed a cost plan for both teams based on its team’s experiences of running similar programmes in the past and on its understanding of the qualification format. We have been hard at work for some months now to generate the income required to operate a successful performance programme.
In order for our Lionesses & Lions to take their rightful place on the international courts in October & December 2024, we need to raise a significant amount of investment to support the performance of both teams to progress through qualifying/preliminary rounds, host friendly fixtures, and invest in the human capital required to build competitive national teams (e.g. coaching, sports science, welfare, training, data). This currently outstrips the investment we have been able to secure to date to build & operate the Performance Pathway.
Exact spend is dependent on progress through the competition, and we have profiled budgets for differing levels of performance support. We believe there to be a minimum viable operating budget of £150,000, growing to £500,000 based on progression to & location of future rounds.
We have also milestoned the spend, with April 2024 being the first major milestone which will dictate the viability of the Lionesses roaring October 2024.
We are asking the Futsal community for help in securing the required support for both national teams.
What are the packages/options? How do I offer help or support?
We are using this moment to ask the Futsal community to unite in a coherent and connected manner and help us deliver on the ambition – which we believe is shared across the country – to build a coherent talent programme and national team for the sport of futsal.
If you have any ideas, any value in kind to offer or contacts to share please advise commercial@englandfutsal.com.
We are seeking monetary investment/sponsorship/commercial partnerships with different levels of package available. To explore the opportunity or discuss a bespoke package please email commercial@englandfutsal.com.
We are also seeking Value in Kind partnerships to join our current partners in supporting the National Teams programme, examples of some of the areas we are looking to explore are below. To explore the opportunity of partnering with us please email commercial@englandfutsal.com.
- Accommodation
- Travel (flights)
- Medical Provision
- Physio Support
- Equipment
- Sport Science
- Athlete Welfare
We are interested in exploring the opportunity to host the UEFA women’s qualifiers for the World Cup in October 2024, if you are a facility operator/owner/event deliverer who would be interested in supporting this exploration please email commercial@englandfutsal.com.
How will England Senior Squads be selected?
At this stage England Futsal are only operating High Performance Groups as part of our Performance Pathways, no England teams have yet been formed.
Any England Team will be selected from within the Performance Pathway High Performance Groups aligned to our selection processes. The Performance Staff Team currently are evolving the High Performance Group selection processes aligned to the recent sanctioning of senior teams and we will publish these when completed. These will include information on player referrals and our Pride DNA.
What is the process surrounding the appointment of National Teams Coaching Staff?
We have a Performance Staff team in place that has been selected through an open & independent recruitment process and are currently working through their honorarium for the 2023-2024 season. Beyond this season, if funding is secured that would allow us to employ these roles on a more funded/full-time/dedicated basis then we would consider at that point whether we go through another recruitment process. As greater clarity on team budgets emerge, we will assess the need for other complimentary roles in order to form a multi-disciplinary team.
England Futsal are committed to developing coaches sustainably to support the long-term growth of the game.
What is the FA’s position?
England Futsal is delighted to confirm that The FA has approved our proposal to enter our senior England Futsal Teams in upcoming UEFA and FIFA competitions, based on the programme being funded and delivered by England Futsal.
England Futsal is now exploring a mixed economy funding model from a range of commercial sources to raise funding across a 24-month window, so that our England Men’s and Women’s Futsal teams can take their place on the international courts in May & December 2024.
We believe this presents an exciting opportunity in building a coherent talent programme and national team for the sport of futsal. We would welcome any interest in supporting these opportunities via commercial@englandfutsal.com.
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