Futsal ticks a lot of boxes to appear on the Olympic program, said the coach of the French team, Raphaël Reynaud, speaking to the L’Équipe channel. To the point of seeing it replace traditional 11-a-side football?
What if futsal rekindled the flame? Despite the counter-example of the team led by Thierry Henry in Paris, 11-a-side football, reserved for hopeful selections (with three “bonus” players over 23), is historically a sport which does not raise crowds at the Olympic Games. To the point of imagining an alternative.
Futsal thus appears obvious, at a time when the World Cup of the discipline, organized in Uzbekistan, is coming to an end. “The advantage that futsal has compared to the Olympic Games format is that a tournament can be organized in two weeks without any problem. The time of the Olympics corresponds to what we can produce and to a format of futsal tournament”, argues Raphaël Reynaud, the coach of the French team, on the L’Equipe channel.
The example of rugby sevens or 3×3 basketball?
With two periods of 20 minutes, played five against five on a pitch the same size as a handball court, futsal seems perfectly suited to the Olympic fortnight. “The recovery time is shorter, we can play every two days. So we fit into this Olympic Games format,” insists Raphaël Reynaud.
Like rugby sevens or 3×3 basketball, more dynamic formats are popular with the Olympics. Futsal has already appeared on the program for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. For the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, however, futsal is starting too far, the additional sports (flag football, lacrosse, baseball-softball, cricket and squash) being already known.
