I am the founder and captain of Manchester Futsal Club’s women’s team. Over the past seven years, I have watched my sport grow from strength to strength. Participation has grown exponentially at grassroots and national levels for women and girls. After your report (FA cuts to hit grassroots football and futsal hard, leaked documents show, 22 September), the Football Association confirmed that futsal will lose almost all of its funding.
Given that in 2018 the FA laid out a six-year strategy for futsal that included an England women’s team, and signed a three-year partnership with Pokémon to support this strategy just last year, our devastated community wants answers. Thus far, there has been a deafening silence from FA chief executives.
Of the £300m in lost income that the FA has announced it will incur over the next four years, cuts to futsal will recoup a measly £900,000 per year. The loss-to-gain ratio of this decision is incredibly disproportionate in its impact.
The futsal community deserves better. We have built our beautiful sport up from nothing. We have fought to be seen and embraced in a football-obsessed culture. We need answers as to why our governing body – the wealthiest football association on the planet – has almost completely abandoned us at a time when our sport was taking flight.
Leanne Skarratt
Failsworth, Manchester
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