Second up in our staff blogging feature we have Darren Gaffney head coach for our u8 academy squad. ‘Daz’ joined the Club in 2013 after bringing his son along to our first ever academy training session. He has progressed from assistant to academy team head coach, developing his Futsal knowledge and coaching experience from a position of complete novice. His dedication to learning and love for the game make him a vital part of Carlisle Futsal Club.


I believe Futsal should be introduced at an early stage to give young players the technical base needed to develop further, this is exactly what we are aiming to achieve at Carlisle Futsal club. I believe this is the way forward and this is why we start players in our academy as young as possible. As kids grow they develop pace and power, it can be trained into a player over a relatively short period but technical ability is trained over many years. It is interesting for us to see which of our players have been caught the attention of big football academies. What they are looking for and what we are looking for are not always the same.