Guwahati, April 2: City-based Rural Soccer Club is organising the Guwahati Futsal Festival, in association with Premier Futsal India, at Bhogeswari Phukanani Indoor Stadium here on April 10 and 11.
The first futsal event in Assam will see over 60 teams from the Northeast take part. The tournament will be played five-a-side according to the rules of Futsal Association of India, with prize-money of Rs 50,000.
Futsal, a shorter variant of football, played indoors with two halves of 20 minutes each, has been gaining popularity since its inception a few years ago.
Every squad is allowed a maximum of 12 players.
The festival aims at providing a platform for the players of the region to demonstrate their skills and grab an opportunity to be trained by experts. The game has been immensely popular in Manipur for the past few years.
Premier Futsal is a franchise-based league first held in Chennai and Goa from July 15 to July 24 last year.
Each playing team consisted of three international futsal players, an international marquee player and an Indian futsal player.
In Assam, a trio of football enthusiasts - Kaustove Moni Kakoti, Kaustab Chakraborty and Lio Sengrang - have come together under the banner of Rural Soccer Club to introduce the first futsal tournament.
"There is a huge dearth of grounds in Assam, including Guwahati, which hampers the progress of many deserving players. The festival aims to promote football and other sports among the youths who nowadays are often glued to their mobile phones. Association of Youth Futsal Assam has provided support to the event," said Sengrang, one of the organisers.
He hoped the tournament will help to prepare a base for the sport in Assam. "The tournament will provide a window to the players to be selected for tournaments like Premier Futsal and get an opportunity to train with football legends like Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs, Hernan Crespo and others," Sengrang said.
The festival will have a theme song, sung by Babanita Das, along with a theme video released on social media.
