Futsal team at first international tournament

The team has travelled to Madeira for the Funchal Futsal cup from 3 to 9 July

Jersey's under-17 futsal team is taking on players from around the world at its first international tournament.

The players have flown to Madeira for the International Tournament Funchal Futsal Cup which runs until 9 July.

Sonny, 16, said: "It'll be good to see how we compare to the other teams and what the level will be like in Europe and England."

Futsal was only introduced to Jersey five years ago but the team's head coach Martin Cassidy said there was now massive demand from players wanting to play the sport.

The Jersey team's rivals include the Kairat Almaty FC under-17s team from Kazakhstan who were runners-up in this year's Futsal Champions League and have won the Funchal competition twice previously.

Stanley, 16, started playing futsal in 2020 "to help with the technical side of football" and to "just have some fun".

Jack, 16, a futsal goalkeeper who only started playing eight months ago, said: "I got asked by a mate because we needed a goalkeeper and... I was really intrigued by it and I really wanted to do it."

'Really shocked'

Sonny said he first introduced futsal to the island to help his son's under-12 side at local football club St Paul's.

"We were really shocked at how within six months the technical development, especially the early development football players, picked it up a lot quicker," he said.

He said Jersey was yet to establish any local teams or even have a permanent venue, meaning the team was pretty close to capacity in terms of members.

"I can't progress it any further without support on a venue," he said.

"There's a lot of venues in Jersey, but there's also a lot of sports competing to get them."

Sonny said the team was under no illusion the tournament was going to be a challenge.

"We are going to learn a lot," he said.

"Every player is going to certainly come back a better player for it and this is the sort of pilot for us taking teams off island."