Several observers in the Futsal community have expressed their shock at the FAs decision to exclude current Super League Club York and last years division 2 North winners Derby from the 2015/16 Super League. York and Derby will be bitterly disappointed at not making it into the top 8 Clubs in the North and rightly so. Both Clubs have put in strong performances on court over the course of the last season and have done a great deal to establish sustainable Club structures. Carlisle Futsal Clubs inclusion at their expense should only serve as a reminder to all in the Futsal community of the exceptional work that has gone on in North Cumbria over the last 3 years.
Carlisle Futsal Club has quietly worked through and implemented, in a deliberate and methodical way, its development plan which was first put in place in September 2012. The Clubs inclusion in the FA Futsal Super league for season 2015/16 is the fruit born from the seeds that have been sown over the last 3 years and is just reward for hours of tireless work by the volunteer workforce. Through the Clubs community programme, player development programme, talent identification strategy and match day experience it has grown and now boasts a 25 strong volunteer workforce, a 16 team adult league, 120 junior members, and can boast sell out crowds for home fixtures and a proudly works with a host of community partners.
The Club has been built on the philosophy that to create success on the court it needs to be sustainable. Once the infrastructure is in place it allows the Club to attract and develop the best players and that is what happened during the Clubs first season in the FA National League during 2014/15.
After a poor start suffering 3 defeats in the first 4 games some drastic changes were made ahead of transfer deadline day at the end of January 2015 with 7 new additions including Northern League players Ryan Hall, Kelvin James and Jordan Little as well as Carlisle City trio Marc Shiel, Rob McCartney and Josh Simpson. It worked and the Club finished the season winning 3 and drawing 1 from the last 4 games beating Super League application rivals FS Derby along the way.
Carlisle Futsal Club now has a reputation with the FA for delivering on what it says it will do and, along with a new 5 year business plan which was presented as part of the Super League application process, this was enough to ensure that application rivals York, FS Derby and Stockport would miss out.
The challenge now for Carlisle Futsal Club is to ensure the on court progress continues to improve at the same rate it did over the 2014/15 season. The Club aims to be the best in the country and will continue to work until that is achieved. The inclusion of Carlisle Futsal Club marks the start of another 5 year process but the Club now has the infrastructure to push the forward quickly and crucially will be able to ride on the wave of optimism and excitement generated by the Clubs support – the people of Carlisle and Cumbria.
#thisisours
