England Futsal will operate the the England Futsal National teams on behalf of the FA, including the ‘Three Lions’, ‘Lionesses’ and ‘Young Lions’ brands.
The Talent pathway will be built over time and in partnership with stakeholders on a timeline aligned to the UEFA & FIFA competition schedules. For this reason, the Men’s U19 Team will be the first team to be created in this new era for Futsal in England followed in 2023 by the formation of the U19s Women’s Team.
Our longterm plan includes a pathway for Men’s & Women’s Teams up to senior level.
MEN'S U19 NATIONAL TEAM
BEN TADMOR
MEN’S U19 TEAM MANAGER
Ben has spent almost 20 years driving change and improving standards in Sports Development. He has diverse experience within the industry ranging from front line delivery, to development & planning to delivering strategic change. He strives to engage young children through sport, igniting a passion to participate and enjoy activity as a lifelong habit.
The Futsal community may know Ben as a former Assistant Coach to the Men’s Senior Futsal Team, as the U19 Men’s pathway lead or as an FA Futsal Coach Educator. Having been introduced to Futsal in 2004, Ben evolved with the development of the game in England and has experienced National League, FA Futsal Cup & UEFA Futsal Champions League campaigns with domestic teams.
Away from Futsal, Ben has also led a number of successful corporate promotions including the planning & delivery of a Talent ID program on behalf of an iconic global brand as part of their FIFA World Cup marketing campaign.
Ben is married to Alice and they have 3 children: Herbie 11, Eadie 10 & Ottie 7. All 3 children enjoy playing sport so on the very rare occasions that the family are not on the side lines of a pitch, together they enjoy participating in water sports, playing on the beach & taking the dog for a muddy walk.
SION KITSON
INTERIM MEN’S U19s HEAD COACH
Sion has been involved in futsal since 2004. As a player he represented Great Britain at two World University Games and played International futsal for Wales for 5 years. Captaining his country and scoring at international level are his proudest playing moments.
He has also had the honour of coaching the England & Wales U19s as well as the England U21s and being assistant coach for the Men’s senior team over the last 5 years.
Sion has worked in the sport sector for the past 15 years; with the FA a Coach Educator, mentor & Development Officer, for Sport England leading their work on coaching, and is now with England Hockey supporting the implementation of their talent system.
He is never happier than when spending time with his family exploring new places, or being on the futsal court working with players (something he is particularly looking forward to resuming over the next 12 months with the national programme).
Sion is an advocate of creating opportunity for young players to achieve beyond what they thought was possible. He enjoys listening to the High Performance podcast and learning from high performing individuals from across the sport & the business world in order to further develop himself in service of the Game he loves.
PETE VALLANCE
MEN’S U19s ASSISTANT COACH
Pete has worked extensively across sport and education and is currently a Lecturer in Sports & Exercise at Coventry University, as well as an FA Licensed Tutor and Coach Mentor. He is passionate about developing creative coaches that create and maintain a high performance culture, combining it with experiential learning and reflective practice to achieve more meaningful and individualised development. Pete is a relational coach and aims to inspire, enthuse and nurture talent by developing both the person and the player. He continues to develop his own coaching practice by engaging in contemporary research, and has published papers in two Routledge Handbooks and the UK Coaching Applied Research Journal.
Pete’s proudest achievement was representing his country in the Senior England Futsal Squad from 2008-2012. Since then, he has been heavily involved in the development of the England Futsal Performance Programme over the last ten years, first as Head Coach of the Midlands Centre of Excellence, then as National Manager of the FA Regional Talent Centres, followed by Head Coach of the England U19’s Futsal Squad and Assistant Coach of the U23’s between 2016-2020. During his time as Head Coach of the England U19’s, he managed the squad for the inaugural 2019 UEFA European Championships in Croatia, achieving a record win against Italy.
Pete is happiest when on the Futsal court, where he can be found as both player and Head Coach for his club, Hartpury Futsal. He is proud to see the club’s development and is looking forward to expanding the club across both the men’s and women’s programme.
Pete is a family man at heart and enjoys spending time with his wife and two beautiful girls, Esther and Clara, going for family bike rides and inventing lots of fun games to inspire imaginary play. His life motto is “Work hard and see everything as a learning opportunity”.
STUART COOK
MEN’S U19s ASSISTANT COACH
Stuart started playing Futsal for England in 2009 and immediately became hooked on the sport. Playing 80 international games across several successful qualification campaigns, as a player he loved the physical & mental aspects the Game and, in transitioning to coaching, has really enjoyed the tactical element of the sport. His proudest moments within Futsal are qualifying for the Main round for the first time in both European Championships and World Cups. Ask him about the story behind the Three Lions shirt he has on the wall at home…As a player he also enjoyed success the National League,FA Cup and UEFA Champions league.
He is a Contracts Manager by day for a Fire Protection company and oversees full system installations within numerous building types, from schools and office block to warehouses and power stations to ensure they have sufficient means to avoid any major damage in case of fire.
Away from the day job, he currently plays a big part in the running of Bolton Futsal Club, where he is Head Coach of the senior and Development teams and Coach to the U14s-16s academy age groups.
He is still a National Futsal Series player, although his body often reminds him that after numerous knee operations and a couple of torn ACLs, maybe he should stick to coaching…
Off the field and away from the day job he has a big family including 4 beautiful children (Tyler (15), Paige (12), Mason (10) and Sophia (3), all amazing and with their own individual personalities) who make each day different and amazing but also challenging for him and his wife Claire. Outside of futsal he spends as much time as possible with them s they try and take in as many local parks and walks as possible around all the many activities the children do.
WOMEN'S U19 NATIONAL TEAM
TO BE APPOINTED
WOMEN’S U19 TEAM MANAGER
To be announced.
TO BE APPOINTED
WOMEN’S U19s HEAD COACH
To be announced.
NATIONAL TEAMS STAFF
ANDY READING
NATIONAL TEAMS GOALKEEPER COACH
Happy Place – spending time with the family, having lots of fun with my son. Being on a futsal court working with the goalkeepers and being around an elite sports environment.
Fondest memories – Being part of the senior national team that qualified for the main round of world cup qualifying. 5 years of hard work and sacrifice culminated in the team performing and getting important results in Latvia. There was a lot of drama with a last second goal against Cyprus seeing is qualify, it was highly emotional.
What are you most proud of? Seeing my lovely son blossoming and being involved in over 120 international futsal and football matches as a player and a coach.
Motto – Be the best you can be! Have no regrets and be true to yourself!
Plans for the next 12 months – To help develop the sport I love. I have been involved in futsal since 2001 and it’s an honour to be given this responsibility. I would love to develop futsal goalkeeping in the country from participation through to elite level performance and coach education.
What do I do well – Listen, the best way to develop relationships, value people and create an open and inclusive environment. I am very thorough in keeping with my motto, I will look at every detail in order to help the goalkeepers be prepared for international matches, from match analysis, to session planning and content through to evaluation on match performance. We are all in it together!
Key Influences – The best thing I ever did was to travel the world experiencing different futsal cultures, I learnt a lot about myself as a coach and as a person. Over the past 6 years I have had the opportunity to work with a top sports psychologist who has had a profound effect on coaching and session content for which I am grateful for There are so many coaches that I have been fortunate enough to have met or worked with which has help me hugely in understanding futsal.
Family – My wife and 7 year old son have been very supportive throughout the years and know how much futsal means to me for which I am eternally grateful. We try to spend as much time together having fun, experiencing lots of varied activities together. Getting the balance between work and family in very important to me.
English