Two will be the portable wooden courts used for the competitions, while five will be permanent venues to help promote futsal.
The FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup Philippines 2025 won’t just be leaving memories behind later this year.
According to FIFA Director of Tournaments Jaime Yarza, no less than seven futsal courts will be gifted to the Philippines after the tournament is over in December. Yarza recently visited the country and attended the launch of the tournament brand identity and logo the other day in Whitespace, Makati.
“One of the purposes of this tournament is to make the game more popular in the country also, to help grow the game, so it’s great to go (hold the tournament) in these types of countries,” said the 57-year-old Spaniard.
Two competition-standard sprung wood courts that will be used for the actual matches will stay in the country after the tournament. These surfaces can be disassembled, stored, and even transported and reassembled in another venue. The high-quality panels can last up to 25 years according to Yarza, if maintained properly. 2m by 3m futsal goal frames will also be supplied.
It is not yet confirmed where the matches will take place, but last year the ASEAN Football Federation futsal championship for women was held in the Philsports Arena in Pasig. It appears that another provincial venue is also going to be finalized soon.
Each match venue also needs a separate training venue, and this is where the five other courts will come in. Yarza says these courts will be permanently in place, and made of a different synthetic material that will be even more durable than the wooden courts and will likely need far less maintenance. Two training courts for the competition will be made and it seems another three will also be created in places that have yet to be finalized.
Futsal, the five-a-side form of football that is usually played on a smooth surface indoors, is, at the elite level, played on a large 40m by 20m court that is significantly larger than the 28m by 15m FIBA basketball court commonly found in the Philippines. All seven of these courts that FIFA is donating will be 40m by 20m, a huge boost to the game and for national teams.
There are only a handful of facilities in the country that can accommodate 40m by 20m courts at the moment, and in the past, even national teams preparing for international competitions had to train on basketball courts, a huge disadvantage. Once this tournament is over, that will become less of a problem.
As the host nation, the Philippines is automatically qualified as one of the 16 participating teams in the first-ever running of a FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup. Yarza says that the Philippines may have been a surprise winner of the bidding process to host the event, but there were some aspects of the Filipino presentation that really stood out.
“One of the things that caught our eye from the beginning (about the Philippine bid) was the huge interest from the federation,” explained Yarza.
“We could also see that the government was really behind the project. We noticed interesting projects on women’s futsal in the country as well as the success of the women’s national football team. There was a general interest in promoting the women’s game from the authorities and the federation. This is what gave the difference over the other countries.”
The competition comes not a moment too soon. Yarza says in 2006 there were only 22 or 25 national women’s futsal teams. Now 77 nations are participating in qualifying for this inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup, a clear sign of the game’s growth worldwide.
Yarza also repeated the talking points that experts say make the variant a great developmental tool for young players.
“I remember when I was a kid playing football most of the time we would spend it running to the front and running back. We would rarely touch the ball. The two or three best players would take the ball all the time. You can’t develop technical skills like that. First time I played futsal at twelve years old it was great. You were in touch with the ball most of the time. You couldn’t hide behind your teammates in futsal. You are forced to think quickly because you have someone on top of you (guarding you) very quickly,” says Yarza, who also played basketball growing up in Tenerife on the Canary Islands.
“Futsal is the best approach (developmentally), for players up to twelve years old.”
Yarza was also all praises for the Filipino team that is working overtime to organize the tournament.
“I’m very happy realizing how professional the people are here. We have encountered a lot of people with high work ethics who deliver the tasks entrusted to them. We have been able to learn a lot of things about work here also. The brand launch was extremely successful and well organized,” enthused Yarza.
“The agency did an amazing job and the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) was very well prepared. It was a flawless delivery of the event. It gives us a lot of confidence that it (the tournament) will be a success.”
The next item on the calendar is the official draw that will determine the round-robin groups, which will happen on September 15. The event itself will run from November 21 to December 7.
Banner Image from PFF on Facebook.