Football NSW confirms the return of futsal in 2021

Futsal competitions are set to return across NSW this year with Football NSW announcing two competitions in conjunction with various Futsal Premier League clubs, alongside two Football NSW affiliates PCYC Marrickville and The Centre Dural.

This news comes off the back off the unfortunate development that the usual Futsal Premier Leagues competitions for 2021 have officially been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Football NSW has been working closely with Local Futsal Affiliates, who have thrown its support behind running and delivering competitions which will once again see players return to venues and participating in the sport of futsal.

PCYC Marrickville is excited to serve the futsal community by hosting junior competitions only consisting of several clubs, including Football NSW Futsal Premier League teams kicking off this weekend on Sunday October 31 and will run up to December 19.

The competition has been set for eight rounds providing a good array of young talent from the Under 8’s right through to the Under 13’s age grades for both boys and girls.

In addition, The Centre Dural has announced its competition will mirror Football NSW’s Futsal Premier League structure by providing age grades from the Under 10’s Boys and Girls right through to the senior men & women.

This competition will be played on Saturdays starting on October 30 and will run until December 18, consisting of four Futsal Premier League clubs.

In a statement, Football NSW Futsal Manager Jordan Guerreiro was delighted to see the sport given the green light to have competitions run once more, considering the heartache during the last two years due to the pandemic.

“I am extremely excited and proud that we have been able to engage with key members of our Futsal community to get Futsal up and running again in 2021,” he said.

“It’s been a difficult period as most can imagine with all the unknown information and protocols with the return to community sport along with the Public Health Order from the NSW Government during our lockdowns.

“A considerable amount of effort has gone into providing opportunities where we can ensure that our Futsal community can come back and play our wonderful game in the best and most efficient way possible. We are prioritising the safety of the participants in coordination with our Futsal affiliates and Futsal clubs through Covid Compliance to the NSW PHO.

“We viewed this opportunity with two of our Affiliates reaching out to provide this opportunity to showcase what Futsal means to the community and the clubs involved. It was necessary to provide these competitions at this time of the year as it plays an integral role to the development of our sport and players.

“We view this opportunity as a Futsal fiesta type of environment where all our players can have fun playing the sport with their teammates as well as enjoying the atmosphere in celebrating Futsal as a game and developing their ability and potential.

“I would like to acknowledge and thank all key members who were involved in this process in having these competitions commence in what have been unprecedented times for all in our sport.

“Good luck to all clubs and affiliates involved in getting their respective competitions up and running in what will be a solid 2021 season for all involved.”

FIFA+ delivering valuable exposure for Oceania football

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is partnering with FIFA’s football streaming platform, FIFA+, to broadcast its international and club competitions for two years.

The deal signifies a major win for the commercialisation and promotion of Oceanian football globally.

FIFA+ is a mobile and desktop application that provides subscribers with live streaming of various FIFA competitions, magazine shows, documentary films, and archived matches from previous tournaments.

The application will televise all major OFC competitions, such as the OFC Champions League (Men’s, women’s and youth), futsal and beach soccer competitions, and the men’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

The World Cup qualifying campaign takes on greater importance this year, as for the first time ever, OFC nations will battle for one automatic spot at the 2026 Men’s FIFA World Cup.

It represents an important moment for Oceanian football, and while there is global scepticism about FIFA’s move to a 48-team men’s World Cup, it is the smaller nations like those in Oceania who will benefit greatly.

Adding OFC’s collaboration with FIFA+ to the mix only incentivises players and coaches further, providing them a platform to build their careers and future pathways.

“This partnership with FIFA+ marks a new era for Oceania football. It’s a monumental step towards realising our dreams and showcasing the talents of our region to a global audience,” OFC General Secretary Franck Castillo said via press release.

“We are excited about the opportunities this collaboration unlocks and the new horizons it opens for our players, teams, and fans.”

The increased coverage will be crucial to OFC’s commercial endeavours and future sustainability as an organisation. General Secretary Castillo paid tribute to the efforts of OFC members to secure this deal.

“In the last five years, OFC has gone to great lengths to grow football coverage across the Pacific and provide quality broadcast production standards to all fans,” he added via media release.

“As a testament to these efforts, our social media following has increased by 110% and live streaming views by 200% since 2019. We have rallied media rights in the broadcast space and expanded our distribution from four regional TV broadcasters to 26.”

“We have also expanded commercially through selling our live streaming, media and data rights for the next two years – 2024 and 2025; this is a major step forward for us in the commercial space.”

Below is the full list of competitions to be shown live and free on FIFA+ in 2024:

OFC Women’s Champions League – Solomon Islands | 10-23 March

OFC Men’s Nations Cup – Qualifying – Tonga | 20-26 March

OFC U-19 Men’s Championship – Qualifying – Vanuatu | 9-15 April

OFC U-16 Men’s Championship – Qualifying – Tonga | 13-19 April

OFC Futsal Men’s Champions League – New Caledonia | 23-28 April

OFC Men’s Champions League – Tahiti | 11-24 May

OFC U-16 Women’s Championship – Qualifying – New Zealand | 14-20 June

OFC Men’s Nations Cup – Vanuatu | 15-30 June

OFC U-19 Men’s Championship – Samoa | 7-20 July

OFC U-16 Men’s Championship – Tahiti | 28 July-10 August

OFC Futsal Women’s Nations Cup – Solomon Islands | 18-24 August

FIFA World Cup 2026™ – Oceania Qualifiers MD 1 & 2 – Samoa | 2-10 September

OFC U-16 Women’s Championship – Fiji | 8-21 September

FIFA World Cup 2026™ – Oceania Qualifiers MD 3 – New Zealand & Vanuatu | 7-15 October

OFC Beach Soccer Men’s Nations Cup – Solomon Islands | 20-26 October

FIFA World Cup 2026™ – Oceania Qualifiers MD 4 & 5 – New Zealand & Papua New Guinea | 11-19 November

Premier League clubs vote to tighten sponsorship rules

The Premier League has implemented stricter regulations aimed at preventing clubs from inflating sponsorship and transfer deals with entities linked to their owners.

These revised rules were approved by a ‘very narrow’ majority in a club vote last month and aim to address concerns about Profit and Sustainability Rules and maintaining a level playing field within the league.

The process will now work where the clubs must demonstrate the legitimacy of these transactions. They must provide a declaration from an associated party director confirming their belief in the deal’s fair market value.

Then an independent commission will review each of these deals, make a decision and impose a range of sanctions for any breaches they find. The severity of the offence will determine the penalty.

It is understood that the vote was not unanimous, with the league scraping through their ‘two-thirds majority’ rule with 14 of the 20 clubs agreeing to this policy.

Manchester City and Newcastle were reportedly part of the few clubs that staunchly opposed this policy and both clubs are in the spotlight having entered multiple commercial deals with brands from the same countries as their owners over recent years.

This has become an obvious integrity issue with the way clubs have inflated deals with affiliated entities in order to meet the stricter FFP thresholds that have seen clubs like Everton and Nottingham Forest punished, the former with a six-point deduction.

It became an interesting discussion after big clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham voted in favour of these new strict rules after recently being passed by Newcastle and Manchester City in commercial revenue.

Out of the 115 FFP charges that Manchester City face, the ones that could impose the biggest sanction are directly related to this topic, with the club earning over 13 times more in 2022/23 than they did in 2008 when the takeover first occurred, indicating a potential exaggeration of revenue from their Middle Eastern sponsors.

The Premier League claims that these revisions will ensure long-term financial sustainability while promoting fairness amongst clubs as they try to prevent other clubs from gaining an unfair advantage through non-market practices.

With Leicester City, Everton and Nottingham Forest charged in the last month, there is a clear crackdown on clubs breaking the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

It is certainly a step in the right direction for the Premier League who are seeing more clubs spend seemingly above their means without any harsh regulatory or legal checks that could potentially damage the integrity of the competition.

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