Local amateur footballers unhappy with Premier Futsal

The return of Premier Futsal League for its second season has not got down well with the city’s top amateur footballers. Calling the selection process “bogus”, they feel that the multi-national league is not giving enough opportunities to the local players.

Premier Futsal will be going global this year having its final leg in Dubai featuring football legends Ronaldinho, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Falcao as marquee players for their respected teams. Futsal is a subset of football that has fast paced, five players-a-side matches with halves of 20 minutes. The league will start from September 15 at NSCI, Mumbai.

Actor Tiger Shroff was unveiled as the co-owner of the Mumbai franchise named Krystal Mumbai Warriors along with Shubham Lad. “We have brought out talent from the city and nearby areas as futsal is played in small nooks and corners by people,” said co-owner Lad.

Anthony Machado, from Kalina Rangers FC who represented India in the five-a-side World Cup in China does not agree with Lad and calls Premier Futsal a corporate attention-grabber. “There’s a lot of influence involved to get selected in the team along with a registration fee of '1,000. When I called them to find out about the registrations, they said it is closed and later my friends told me, there was on-the-spot entry. All the local players are talking about the whole procedure being fake and not giving the local talent any chance to come out,” says a discouraged Machado who captained the Indian side.

The tournament has added a great deal of glamour to it by introducing celebrities.  Before Tiger Shroff, Sunny Leone and Rana Daggubati featured in their respected team’s unveiling.

Daniel Michael Fernandes, who plays for Joga Bonito FC, went for the trials and ended up in the top 10, and feels the whole selection procedure was “made up”. “Out of 150 people, I was short-listed in the final 10 for the physical test. I received a message from the physio that I was selected but I got no call from the selectors. They charged us '1,000 for registration and did not even note down our numbers. If they want to promote futsal among the youth, why are people like us who have established themselves in the sport, being left out?” questions Daniel. He was also a part of the Indian team that went to China.

Similar sentiments were expressed by many of the local futsal players who feel that the corporate league is not helping anyone but making a profit.

Dinesh Raj, who co-owns the Premier Futsal said, “Premier Futsal is dedicated to engage today’s youth by encouraging their participation in the sport enabling them with right direction and guidance.”

A majority of the local players have a disagreement with the league. A few of them did not try this year because they had a similar experience in the previous year.