TWELVE new Futsal county champions have been crowned across the 2021-22 season.

Over the course of this season Futsal Competitions for both schools and clubs have been taking place across the county to determine county champions.

They have been completed this past week with a total of 12 new county champions being crowned across a variety of different age groups for boys and girls. 

Suffolk Schools’ Futsal Cup

The Suffolk Schools Futsal Cup has again proven to be a popular competition amongst secondary schools throughout the county. This year’s competition was for U13 (Year 8) and U15 (Year 10) teams for both boys and girls, with more schools taking part than previous years in total. The U13 Boys had 17 schools, U15 Boys had 18, U13 Girls had 11 and U15 Girls had 10 teams entered the competition.

Unfortunately, Covid still impacted the competition with some schools not being able to compete due to restrictions in place and the changing guidelines over the course of the year. But each of the competition were able to reach the finals and winners crowned.

All the participants were put into regional groups with 20+ dates taking place throughout the county, with Ipswich teams moving into an Ipswich final, with other areas progressing through the Suffolk finals. The girls’ finals took place at Kesgrave High School and the boys’ finals took place at Northgate High School.

The county finals finished as below:

• U13 Boys: Champions: Sir John Leman; Finalists – Horringer, Thomas Mills and Northgate
• U13 Girls: Champions: Felixstowe; Finalists – Horringer.
• U15 Boys: Champions: Breckland; Finalists – Pakefield, County Upper, Debenham and Northgate
• U15 Girls: Champions: Kesgrave; Finalists – East Point Academy

The Suffolk Schools Futsal Cup will be back for the 2022-23 season.

The Kesgrave Girls' Under-15s who won the schools' competition. Main photograph: Lowestoft Town Boys' Under-16s who won the club competition

The FA Pokémon Futsal Cup (Suffolk Region)

The FA Pokémon Futsal Cup has also taken place this season following a hiatus due to Covid and returned during the February half-term.

There were 58 teams who signed up to this year’s competition and with the numbers of teams and how many dates required to complete, the decision was made to hold it throughout the half-term week with three different venues hosting across four days.

The venues were Sir John Leman High School, Abbeycroft Leisure (Bury St Edmunds) and Suffolk New College. The girls’ finals took place during half-term at Suffolk New College while the boys’ finals took place at East Bergholt Sports Centre in the following weeks.

The winners will now move on to represent Suffolk in the regional competition and play for a place in the national finals later in the year.

The Suffolk County Champions for 2021-22 are as below:

U10 Boys: Bury Town Rams

U10 Girls: Kesgrave Kestrels

U12 Boys: Lowestoft Town

U12 Girls: Woodbridge Town

U14 Boys: Haverhill Rovers

U14 Girls: Coplestonians

U16 Boys: Lowestoft Town

U16 Girls: Kesgrave Kestrels

Suffolk FA Football Development Officer (Retention) James Morley, who helped to organise the competitions, said: “All competitions were a great advert for Futsal in Suffolk and a format of the game that can help develop all players and translate into football.

“Good luck to those grassroots clubs who are progressing through to the regional competition.”