In the group stages of the Champions League 2008 the following nationalities was registered to play:

Brazilians 85                       Play futsal as part of schools curriculum, several times world futsal champions.

French 65                            Want all junior plays to get 2 hours futsal experience weekly.  Zidane expected to step down (or up) to national French futsal team.

Italians 56                           70% of registered players are futsal players

Spaniards 56                      won last 2 futsal world cups, futsal pitches everywhere.

Germans 43                        Slow like England to embrace futsal.

Portuguese 43                   Juniors and seniors play futsal everywhere.

Turks 36                               Futsal nation.

English 30                            Just scratching futsal surface, miles behind the rest of the world.  Number of English (British) players in Premiership or UEFA Cup, all competitions is dropping alarmingly.  This is a long term trend not a short term blip.

Less than 10% are registered  English!! 

In October 1997  FA English Coaches Association was launched with the intention to ''to affect positively the attitudes, ethics, knowledge and performance of football coaches.''  Nothing in the press relaese         aboout improving the perrformance of teams!  

Stats taken from a Michel Platini article in Daily Mail (Sunday 30^th March)

Has FA Coaches Association lead English football into a blind alley?  Forums for your thoughts.