Entrepreneurs aim for the stars with Professional Futsal League
The Premier Futsal League (PFL) kicked off at the Rustic Indoor Soccer Fields in Fourways last Monday and the combination of frenetic action and quality skills is set to wow soccer fans.
The PFL is a brand-new professional futsal soccer league comprising eight teams. There are eight consecutive matches daily Monday to Friday with the first game kicking off at 9:30.
The PFL brand of Futsal is soccer on steroids. It’s a high-speed, high-action game played across two halves, each comprising 20 minutes, and the skill and fitness levels of the teams are dazzling.
The Premier Futsal League (PFL) is the brainchild of James Garden and several partners, including Adam Albyn of Rustic Indoor Soccer in Fourways.
“We have built the PFL from scratch by scouting players with the necessary skills from Soweto and surrounding informal settlements like Zandspruit and Diepsloot.
“Once we had our top 100 players, we held trials and from that we handpicked the 56 players that make up our eight squads of seven players apiece for the eight PFL teams,” said Garden.
“Many of these guys were unemployed. We now pay each of them a salary and aim to develop as many of them as possible to a point that they can play professionally for PSL clubs. The minimum age is 18, but most of them are aged 19 to 23 and are youngsters out of school trying to earn a living.
“We have launched the PFL on a sixmonth experimental basis and after that will progress to a two-year plan. That will entail rolling out similar leagues in other provinces with the aim of building inter-provincial tournaments and national leagues,” Garden concluded.
PFL matches are currently being shown live in TAB and Betting World shops on SPORTSLIVE, a new in-store soccer TV channel launched by JSE-listed horseracing and betting company Phumelela.
“SPORTSLIVE is an exciting innovation that will be good for us and soccer in this country,” said Phumelela Betting Executive Rob Scott.
“It’s going to provide an invaluable platform for the PFL, which gives jobless youngsters with the right soccer skills an opportunity to earn a living and possibly develop into truly professional players.
“Plus, it offers our soccer customers and soccer fans a whole new experience. They can bet on, and watch live, games that they cannot see anywhere else. Or they can just come in and watch.”
TAB currently operates its ultra-popular Soccer 6 and Soccer 4 bets on PFL matches and the Soccer 6 pool last Thursday delivered a payout of nearly R30,000!
Take a bet and find out more about the PFL @ www.soccer6.co.za