After the exciting announcement last week that Reading Royals had signed an international partnership with top French club ACCS Futsal, there’s more news coming out of their camp on Monday afternoon.
Both Reading Royals men’s and women’s team have been accepted into the FA National Futsal Series for the coming season. Following a restructure of English futsal by the FA in 2019, the National Futsal Series (NFS) became the top level of futsal in England, with the National Futsal League (NFL) continuing independently.
For the last season, Royals men’s side had competed in the NFL Premiership, with the Development side competing in the NFL Championship. With no NFL women’s league, the newly created women’s team were competing in the Hampshire FA Women’s Futsal League. Both the men’s first team and the women’s team ended their seasons as champions of their respective leagues.
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With the FA looking to further grow the game in England, they opened applications for new teams to join the NFS, and Reading Royals were keen to get involved.
Following a stringent application process and interviews with a number of the FA NFS committee, both the men’s first team and women’s team were accepted and will form part of the league for the coming season.
The women’s team will form part of the NFS Women’s Super Series, while the men will compete in the NFS Super Series Tier 2 South. Both teams will face some top competition, but the club are excited for the challenge.
“We are very happy to enter the NFS in what is another step forward for the club,” Head Coach Fernando Silva said. “It has been a great couple of weeks for the club and the future looks really bright!”
Women’s captain Sarah Thompson is also feeling positive about the opportunity, saying: “We are extremely excited at the opportunity to compete in the National Futsal Series and believe this is a big step in the right direction for women’s futsal at Reading Royals. Despite only being established for a year the girls are a group of dedicated and hardworking individuals who are busy preparing for the start of the season and haven’t let the impact of COVID slow down this preparation.”
It’s certainly shaping up to be an exciting season for the club, and you could still play a part in it. The club are looking for new players for all of their teams, as well as sponsors to help the club financially this season. If you’d be interested in getting involved either as a player or a sponsor, please contact info@royalsfutsal.co.uk.
Listen to Alicia Povey discuss all things Futsal with Football in Berkshire’s Rob and Tom on the Berkshire Football Stories podcast here. You can also hear Sarah Thompson discuss the game here.