Futsal classic is on the cards in FAI Final at Abbotstown on Sunday

BLUE MAGIC FC: current FAI Futsal Cup Champions and undefeated this season in competition

THERE'S A CLASSIC on the cards on Sunday afternoon when FAI Futsal Cup holders Blue Magic FC take on arch rivals Real Transilvania in what will be a titanic battle of the two best sides in the country at present. 

By EAMON SCOTT

There's a 4pm kick-off at the National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown and I have no qualms in predicting the best game of  this all-action five-a-side sport you will see this season. 

REAL TRANSILVANIA: looking to stop opponents’ bid for four-in-a-row

And the prize on offer is a place in the 2023-24 UEFA Futsal Champions League (Preliminary Round) and it's a ticket into Europe that no other junior clubs in the country could ever dream of securing. 

But for these two Athletic Union League clubs, the prospect of a trip to the furthest corner of UEFA's geographical expanse awaits for the winners of this most valuable of contests. 

Blue Magic Futsal are aiming to retain the FAI Futsal Cup for the fourth year in a row and in recent years they have seen UEFA Futsal Champions League action in North Macedonia, Montenegro and Estonia. Each time the Sinisa Sicar managed side have improved their performance levels and that is also reflected in an improved UEFA coefficient. 

Standing in their way is Real Transilvania - an excellent team that continues to improve and have raised their game time and time again, getting closer to the lofty standards that Blue Magic expect of themselves. 

While Blue Magic have come out the right side of results in league and domestic cup competition this season, Real Transilvania have shown the promise that suggests that Sunday's final might be closer than many predict. 

The skill factor, the commitment, the intensity, the fitness levels, the sheer drama is certain to provide all the ingredients of a brilliant spectacle for those who make their way out to Abbotstown to take in the action. 

Lamentably, so many aficionados of the 11-aide game either blank or  choose to ignore the many advantages that futsal offers to anyone who plays with a round ball. This is a fabulous sport and the levels of skill are at times simply mesmerising and the control and technique that the players of Blue Magic and Real Transilvania carry in their individual arsenal will be on show in the biggest Futsal game on this island this year. 

Plaudits to people like Martin Pericivalle and Simon Walsh who have undertaken significant FAI Coach development work. Laying down essential coaching work is vital and it is only in the course of time that the real benefits will be harvested.

Blue Magic will enter the game as favourites - of that there is no doubt- but Real Transilvania will be happy with the underdogs tag and they will leave everything they have on the pitch in an attempt to wrestle the title from the holders. 

Rarely have Blue Magic found themselves trailing any opposition domestically, but, in recent games between the two Real Transilvania have come out of the traps at full speed and Magic have had to all on all their futsal craft to reel in their rivals. 

These two clubs are some distance ahead of the chasing pack when it comes to futsal and while greatly respecting each other's ability, this is going to be an absolute blockbuster of a game with no quarter asked or given. 

For anyone who has marvelled at the close control of a Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo or Mbappe and wonder where those sublime controls levels come from, the answer is easy: FUTSAL. 

The great Pele, the likes on Ronaldinho, Zico, Ronaldo all have been grounded in futsal and the weighted ball and fast paced game hones and develops fundamentals of any football player - as a tool it is a wonderful development platform and players who come into the sport make more progress in their technique than any amount of 11-a-side coaching would ever deliver. 

The lack of advocacy for the sport in Ireland is arguably the biggest hindrance to futsal gaining meaningful traction and while the FAI have undertaken significant development work, there is much work still to be done. 

If you want to be the best in a sport, you have to invest in knowledge, to educate coaches and referees. You have to develop a system. There is enormous room for improvement, but it is a long process and it takes hard work and the Athletic Union League is to be applauded for the leading role they have taken in promoting the sport. Other leagues must investigate the many many benefits on offer. 

That appeal would especially go to schoolboy leagues who are missing out on the biggest coaching asset available - bar none, yet so many leagues, so many coaches and associations choose to dismiss it. 

That is the biggest mistake I have encountered in the close on 40 years I have been covering grassroots soccer. 

Embracing futsal in a meaningful way will produce a generation of players with consummate close control, it will develop a cohort of players who think and move faster than their 11-a-side counterparts, it will produce players capable of competing at the highest possible levels..  Of this, I am 100% convinced.

Too many coaches in key decision making positions, who have little or no knowledge of the sport, refuse to embrace it as part of a development programme and that is a critical failure that is costing us as a country. 

So many countries across Europe, South America and Asia are stealing a march and we wonder why we sometimes struggle against 'lesser' nations. The answer often lies in the fact that these 'lesser' nations have fully founded  and funded futsal programmes right up to international level. 

The current President of UEFA, Alexander Cerefin, came up the ranks through futsal and he 'gets it' So many other associations 'get it' and the FAI are, in fairness, making inroads but currently, the AUL Futsal League is the top league in the country with regard to this sport and why League of Ireland clubs - even channelling their Under 17s and Under 19s would make such a massive contribution to helping futsal gain more exposure and traction.

Remarkably, Sunday's winners will be junior amateurs yet they will enter into a competition that includes the likes of Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon as examples of the top end of the competition’s seeding. That really is the stuff of dreams and a badge of honour for Blue Magic FC or Real Transilvania to be mentioned in the same breath as such stellar luminaries.

That's why Sunday's showpiece occasion for the FAI is such a compelling fixture.  The FAI is to be congratulated for their own futsal efforts and I would earnestly appeal to any clubs who would fancy a trip into UEFA Champions League action, futsal is the way to go!

On Sunday, if you have the remotest of interest in watching a pulsating game of high skill, high octane and absolutely riveting live action, come along to Abbotstown and be prepared to watch a feast of futsal. You will not be disappointed. And, it’s free!!

The future is futsal!