The JFA’s new futsal player registration website “j-futsal” has started its free-of-charge player registration function to replace the old individual registration system, which involved registration fee. We sat down with the Futsal Committee Chairman Matsuzaki Yasuhiro (a JFA Executive Managing Director) and its Vice-Chairman Kitazawa Tsuyoshi (a JFA Executive Committee Member). The report is split into three parts.

Enjoyable website for recreational players

A new portal website “j-futsal” for recreational futsal has been launched by the Japan Football Association. It has different kinds of information that recreational players need and also it enables such players to register for membership for free of charge. What are the objectives of this website?

Matsuzaki : Until last year, player registration had been done by using the individual futsal player registration system. This started in 2003 when we didn’t have the nationwide league. Not every 47 prefecture had its prefecture league, and not every 9 region had its regional league. Today we have all the way up to the nationwide league, partly because that individual registration system helped us to spread futsal to people. We now also have the new system in place for all people who love futsal to be registered as recreational players. We wanted the new system to be easy, the registration to be free and the website to have all the information related to futsal. This website is designed to increase the number of people who enjoy futsal to a much larger scale.

What are the benefits to be registered as a recreational player?

Matsuzaki :As the Japan Football Association, we want to provide various kinds of information about futsal to registered players, and we also want to let them share their information with each other. I think there are already players who are already a part of some kind of a player community and they are probably having fun there, but we can provide them with some other communication platform and information sources and as the result I think we will be able to create even more such communities.

Kitazawa : I am also one of the players who go to futsal facilities very often, and enjoy playing with those recreational players. When I do that, I think friendship in a small scale is important but as the next step I hope that kind of friendship even expands among a larger group of people. This website can help that and can be one of the venues to help futsal to be played and enjoyed more. I think it is important for this football family to be one big group or one big team.

Do you mean the all the efforts that have been made so far are coming to fruition little by little?

Kitazawa : Before I retired as a professional player (He played in the first FIFA Futsal World Championship in 1989), it was just mini-soccer. Of course that’s fine as an introductory level, but it’s better for the correct rules and regulations to be understood. If you want your own local rules, you can start them based on the universally correct rules.

Matsuzaki : You are making a very good point. That’s exactly right. I think it’s important to have the right knowledge first.

Kitazawa : In that regard, because Kazu (MIURA Kazuyoshi / Yokohama FC) played in the FIFA Futsal World Cup in 2012 and people started being familiar with terminologies and rules such as “powerplay”. I think that’s when some of the people realised that “it’s not just mini-soccer”. If this website keeps introducing those things, we can have more people enjoy futsal with the correct set of rules.

(To be continued)