Carlisle Futsal Club is officially founded by Al Tindall in September 2012, forming a steering group made up of Liam Jackson, Melissa Clarke and Jonny Fraser. The then England Goalkeeping Coach Tony Elliott, who lived locally, makes contact offering full support.
In February 2013, Jon Reay, Carl Bateson, Darren Gaffney and Ste Doran join the workforce as the club launch its first academy session -taking place outdoors on the tennis courts at Bitts Park for ages 3-6. Needless to say it wasn’t long before the club secured an indoor venue!
By 2015, our academy programme had gone from strength to strength with teams at u4 all the way through to u16. The U10s won the North West regional round of the FA Youth Futsal Cup – beating teams from Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire and Cumbria. The first sign our academy was developing great Futsal players.
A disastrous first half to the men’s debut National League season (2014/15) results in a reshape of the squad ahead of the transfer deadline. It worked and the club went on to finish 3rd in the league and remained unbeaten for the rest of the season. The season climaxed in an enthralling victory over league champions FS Derby at a sold-out Sands Centre Arena.
The club’s operations are delivered by our dedicated team of coach volunteers. Our workforce has grown 220% since 2015 with over 20 coaches now involved with volunteering for our Club.
Providing our players with the best Futsal education means providing incredible inspiration experiences. In Dec 2017, our 2008 squad competed in the World Futsal Cup in Spain against the likes of Barcelona (Esp), Santos (Bra) and City Futsal (USA).
We want to make sure a pathway to elite Futsal exists for the most gifted players in the region, so in 2018 we opened our West Cumbria Performance Centre and in 2019 we launched our South Cumbria Performance Centre.
In 2019, we relaunched our men’s team competing in the National Futsal League once again providing a pathway to the top for all of our academy graduates.