The recently formed London Maccabi Futsal Club has made an excellent start in the Futsal Superleague Division North.
Formed by three Maccabi League footballers, the club was set up to help improve England and Great Britain’s chances of silverware at future Maccabi Games competitions.
Having represented their country at futsal on the big stage, James Steele, Greg Corin and Motti Colman entered the team into a league that feeds directly into the National league. LMFC has made a solid start, lying third in the table with seven wins from 11 matches.
Steele and Colman play for London Maccabi Lions while Corin was a key figure in Hendon United A winning the JC Cyril Anekstein Cup last season.
Colman said: “We have a very ambitious blueprint for the club that will eventually see us with a first team, a reserve team, a junior team and a Masters team.
“We hope to employ a coach to take sessions for the club, and essentially we would like the club to act as a feeder for the Maccabiah and European games.
The Lions defender is clear about why English teams have struggled on the big stage. “For too long futsal has been football’s younger, poorer brother, but to those who have played it, they know that it is an incredible game, with extremely high levels of skill, technique and fitness required.
“We aim to have Maccabi separating futsal from football so that it can act under its own jurisdiction as a separate sport in its own right. Maccabi seem very keen on this idea too.”
To date, the boys have attracted around 20 players aged 15 to 45. Colman said: “It has been a very successful start to the life of the club. The standard of the opposition has generally been very high, and we are keen to attract an excellent calibre of players that want to learn the game that almost all South American, Spanish, Portuguese and Eastern European footballers grew up on.”
