Football

Premier Futsal 2016 Schedule & Squads: All You Need to Know

Posted on July 25, 2016

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Premier Futsal 2016 Schedule:World’s first multi-national Futsal tournament, Premier Futsal is all set to kick off today, and the football legends like Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs, Hernan Crespo and Paul Scholes will showcase their incredible skills in front of the Indian spectators. The first edition of the Premier Futsal will feature six franchises, divided into two groups and the first match will be played at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in Chennai between Chennai and Mumbai. After 8 days and 13 matches, a franchise will be crowned as the first ever champion of this much anticipated and much-hyped competition and the final will be played in Goa on 24^th July. Here we have made an exclusive table of complete Premier Futsal 2016 Schedule!!

Along with the superstars, some world renowned futsal players is also taking part in this first edition of the competition and some young Indian futsal players will also get the opportunity to rub the shoulders with these iconic figures of the game as it is mandatory to include Indian players in each franchise.

The six franchises taking part in this futsal competition are Chennai, Mumbai, Kochi, Goa, Kolkata and Bangalore, with the first three teams are scheduled in the Group A and the later three are in the Group B. The competition will be played in two legs, in Chennai and Goa. From 15^th to 17^th July, first six matches with two being played each day will be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. After a day’s rest, the competition will shift over to Goa and the remaining six group stage matches will be played there from July 19-21, at the Peddem Sports Complex in Mapusa. The two semifinals will also be played in Goa on 23^rd July, and as we said earlier, the grand finale will take place on 24^th July at the same venue.

For this unprecedented futsal competition, the tournament committee has roped in current Indian Cricket Team captain Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador and Portuguese football legend Luis Figo as the President. Music maestro A R Rahman has composed the theme music of the tournament and he will also perform the opening ceremony today before the competition officially inaugurates. Sony Pictures Networks have acquired the broadcasting rights for the league and will telecast all the matches live from 6.50pm onwards on SONY ESPN, Sony SIX, and Sony AATH.

The tournament has gained a lot of attention as several football stars have decided to join the league. The Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, World Cup winner and ex-Barcelona superstar Ronaldinho, Argentine striker Hernan Crespo, ex-Real Madrid ‘Galactico’ all are taking part in this competition and will play as the marquee player. The “Pele of Futsal”, Falcao has also taken the marquee role and in the inaugurating match, his team Chennai 5’s will pit against Giggs’ Mumbai 5’s. In the second match of the opening day, Crespo’s Kolkata 5’s will lock horn against Ronaldinho’s Goa 5’s.

Futsal is a form of football played indoors with five players in each team for the 40-minute duration. The game is very popular in the European and Latin American countries and even has their own World Cup. In this tournament, each franchise is assigned with a marquee international football player, seven international and five Indian futsallers.

At the pre-tournament press conference, all the marquee players were present and said their takes on this innovative competition. The Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho said,“It will be unique experience to be playing against the best futsallers and my friends who I have played against in the past. I am delighted to back in a playing capacity this time and I would like to thank Premier Futsal for bringing back my memories from childhood of playing Futsal back home,”

Chennai 5’s marquee player Falcao, who replaced Portugal and Barcelona’s iconic figure Deco at last minute because of injury, said, “Especially for the 5 kids who are a part of each team – this could be a phenomenal learning experience. A lot of them would be playing alongside their sporting heroes and that should in itself be enough motivation to before to the best of their abilities and learn something from this Premier Futsal experience.”

Later he added, “I am honoured to sitting alongside this elite bunch of players and be playing against them in this debut season of Premier Futsal. This is a great concept and team have in mind to have legends from football, my colleagues from the Futsal world and these young Indian kids as a part of team,”

Mumbai 5’s captain Ryan Giggs said Premier Futsal is a whole new experience for him and stated,“I would love to see how I fare amongst the best in the business of Futsal. Several countries across the world are now embracing Futsal at the academy level to improve the game of kids at a very young age. I am delighted that entrepreneurs in India could think of this concept of Premier Futsal and manage to put together all these Futsal players and of course, all these legends who I have grow up playing with,”

Giggs’s teammate and the member of ‘Class of 92’ Paul Scholes said he was amused at the number of people who turned up at the airport to welcome the captains of six teams.

The marquee player and captain of Bengaluru 5’s stated,“I was totally surprised at the number of people who turned up at the airport to welcome us. I was told there are a lot of Manchester United fans here, but I was pleasantly surprised to know that it was beyond my expectations,”

“Through Premier Futsal, I hope we can showcase the importance of Futsal as a sport to the Indian fans. The thought of having the Indian players as a part of the playing team showcases the intent of the promoters to encourage the youth to take up Futsal. All of us here sincerely hope we can put together a season which will encourage more youngsters to come forth and pick up the sport as a profession.”

Ex-Milan and Chelsea superstar Hernan Crespo, marquee player of Kolkata 5’s, expressed, “I was delighted to see the preparedness with which they went about planning Premier Futsal and as a businessman myself, their conviction led me to believe this is could be a start of something really special in India. I am glad to be here and be playing in the inaugural edition of Premier Futsal.”

So check out the Premier Futsal schedule and the squad of all the 6 franchises taking part in this competition.

Premier Futsal 2016 All Teams/Sqauds

Chennai 5s Premier Futsal Squad

Team Owner: The Hindu

Team Coach: Ney Pereira

Marquee Player: Falcao

International Futsal Player: Espindola (GK)

International Futsal Player: Romulo

International Futsal Player: Cirilo

International Futsal Player: Camilo

International Futsal Player: Rion

Freestyler: Sean Garnier

Indian Futsal Players: Faraz Abdul Azzez

Indian Futsal Players: Younus Pasha

Indian Futsal Players: Yash

Indian Futsal Players: Rohit Suresh (GK)

Indian Futsal Players: S Nannda,

Indian Futsal Players: Haroon

Mumbai 5s Premier Futsal Squad

Team Owner: DC Design

Team Coach: Felice Mastropiero

Marquee Player: Ryan Giggs

International Futsal Players: Luis Amado (GK)

International Futsal Players: Foglia

International Futsal Players: Angellot

International Futsal Players: Ramirez

International Futsal Players: Federico Perez

Freestyler: Pablo

Indian Futsal Players: Jo Paul Bence (GK)

Indian Futsal Players: Chanpreet

Indian Futsal Players: Shubham Mane

Indian Futsal Players: Emmanuel

Indian Futsal Players: Akshay Nair

Indian Futsal Players: Shimyu

Kolkata 5s Premier Futsal Squad

Team owner: Grassroot Entertainment Pvt. Ltd

Team coach: Christian Roldan

Marquee Player: Hernan Crespo

International Futsal Players: Cidao (GK)

International Futsal Players: Saad

International Futsal Players: Gabriel

International Futsal Players: Cirilo

International Futsal Players: Majdoub

Freestyler: Dida

Indian Futsal Players: Amit Paul (GK)

Indian Futsal Players: Subrata Dey

Indian Futsal Players: Pradeep Shaw

Indian Futsal Players: Akshay Nair

Indian Futsal Players: Mohammed Islam

Indian Futsal Players: Mayur Shellar

Goa 5s Premier Futsal Squad

Team owner: Viking Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd

Team coach: Octavio Gomes De Oliveira Junior

Marquee Player: Ronaldinho

International Futsal Players: Bebe (GK)

International Futsal Players: Michael Silva

International Futsal Players: Rafael

International Futsal Players: Vampeta

International Futsal Players: Georgievsky

Freestyler: Adonias

Indian Futsal Players: Vatsal (GK)

Indian Futsal Players: Caitano

Indian Futsal Players: Fredsan Marshall

Indian Futsal Players: Praveendran

Indian Futsal Players: Mohammed

Bangalore 5s Premier Futsal Squad

Team owner: Puneeth Rajkumar

Team coach: Juan Jose Bernal Cierre

Marquee Player: Paul Scholes

International Futsal Players: Elias(GK)

International Futsal Players: Neto

International Futsal Players: Maxi

International Futsal Players: Nabil

International Futsal Players: Anatoliy

Freestyler: Easy Man

Indian Futsal Players: Abhishek R(GK)

Indian Futsal Players: Zaib

Indian Futsal Players: Anto Rushith S

Indian Futsal Players: Jonathan

Indian Futsal Players: Sathya Kumar

Indian Futsal Players: Sai Nikhil

Kochi 5s Premier Futsal Squad

Team owner: ES Entertainment

Team coach: Sergio Sapo

Marquee Player: Michel Salgado

International Futsal Players: Casalone(GK)

International Futsal Players: Chaguinha

International Futsal Players: Deives Moraes

International Futsal Players: Gekabert

Freestyler: Emil

Indian Futsal Players: Yashwant Kumar (GK)

Indian Futsal Players: Muhammed Ameer

Indian Futsal Players: Basil

Indian Futsal Players: Ansh

Indian Futsal Players: Stalin Daniel

Indian Futsal Players: Anupam

Premier Futsal 2016 Schedule, Date and Time

Match 1: Chennai 5s vs Mumbai 5s

Date and Time: 15 July, Friday – 7pm IST

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor, Chennai

Match 2: Goa 5s vs Kolkata 5s

Date and Time: 15 July, Friday – 8pm IST

Venue: Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor, Chennai

Match 3: Mumbai 5s vs Kochi 5s

Date and Time: 16 July, Saturday 7pm IST

Venue: Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor, Chennai

Match 4: Kolkata 5s vs Bengaluru 5s

Date and Time: 16 July, Saturday 8pm IST

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor, Chennai

Match 5: Kochi 5s vs Chennai 5s

Date and Time: 17 July, Sunday –7pm IST

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor, Chennai

Match 6: Bengaluru 5s vs Goa 5s

Date and Time: 17 July, Sunday – 8pm IST

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor, Chennai

Match 7: Kolkata 5s vs Goa 5s

Date and Time: 19 July, Tuesday – 7pm IST