The venue:Not the imposing cauldrons of the San Siro, the Nou Camp or even the Yuba Bharati Krirangan, but small parks and gardens, alleys and traffic islands of Calcutta?

The protagonists: Neighbourhood outfits like ?Five Bullets?, ?Amra Shobai? or ?Yubak Sangha? matching their ball skills with Super Division heavyweights East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting?

A 15 m by 25 m strip of level stretch is all that is required to seed the beautiful game into the narrow arteries and capillaries of the city and get the urban youth excited.

The inaugural TVS Futsal Championships Kolkata 2005, the ?first-ever official five-a-side soccer meet in the country?, kicks off later this month in the districts, with the para edition overlapping along the city bylanes in May.

And the Indian Football Association (IFA), co-hosts alongside Total Sports Entertainment, hopes the six-week-long tournament (final on May 29) can deliver a telling pass to shore up sagging interest in soccer, particularly among Calcutta?s creamy-layer kids.

?Given the smaller arena needed and the pragmatic parameters, a large number of clubs in the metropolitan area can participate. The urban youth aspires to play the game, but is often hamstrung by want of adequate space,? laments IFA honorary secretary Subrata Dutta.

The IFA earlier used to restrict its tournaments to its affiliated units only. ?This is the first time that we are opening up entries to reach out to the masses and give city youngsters the exposure they lack in this sport,? adds Dutta.

He is confident that the futsal meet can serve to throw up a clutch of mainstream footballers from the city proper, ?a rarity these days?.

With Ten Sports roped in to beam the final phases of the five-a-side fiesta live and in the form of capsule highlights, the organisers are buoyant they can grab the eyeballs of corporate decision-makers.

?When parents watch their children on TV playing in the same tournament alongside the likes of Bhaichung Bhutia (a brand mascot for the meet), it?ll touch a chord,? says Dutta.

The preliminary round of the meet will be played across 19 districts of the state and the winners get a wild card to the final phase.

The para edition will feature 45 neighbourhoods, sending a winner to the championship round, also including the Super Division top six.

?As a concept, futsal is wonderful. With the need to be adroit in defence and attack in the same breath, this version of the game promotes all-round ability. Besides, a broad-based tournament like this can also have a ripple social impact by helping channelise the pent-up energy of the urban youth in a positive direction and curb ills like substance abuse and eve-teasing,? opines former footballer Pradip Choudhuri.

The IFA secretary hopes the tournament would also spur top schools of the city to adopt futsal, kicked off in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo way back in 1930 and now played by over 12 million footballers across 100 countries, with Brazil being the epicentre of the action.

?Many schools don?t have a big playground required for mainstream soccer, but can easily squeeze in the five-a-side variety in their backyards. What ODI has done to cricket, futsal can do to football in this country,? Dutta signs off.