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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 24th 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 15th to 17th 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 23rd July, and as we said earlier, the grand finale will take place on 24th 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
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Match 8: Mumbai 5s vs Chennai 5s
Date and Time: 19 July, Tuesday 8pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Match 9: Bengaluru 5s vs Kolkata 5s
Date and Time: 20 July, Wednesday – 7pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Match 10: Kochi 5s vs Mumbai 5s
Date and Time: 20 July, Wednesday – 8pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Match 11: Goa 5s vs Bengaluru 5s
Date and Time: 21 July, Thursday – 7pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Match 12: Chennai 5s vs Kochi 5s
Date and Time: 21 July, Thursday – 8pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Semi-Final
Match 13: Group A winner vs Group B runner-up
Date and Time: 23 July, Saturday – 7pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Match 14: Group A runner-up vs Group B winner
Date and Time: 23 July, Saturday – 8pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa
Final:
Match 15: Winner of Match 13 v Winner of Match 14
Date and Time: 24 July, Sunday – 8pm IST
Venue: Peddem Sports Complex, Goa