England women head for futsal debut after ‘blood, sweat, tears’ and fundraising
Money raised for kit and camps after outsourcing by FAMen launch appeal to plug own gap before Uefa deadline
England’s first women’s futsal team are celebrating hitting the target before a ball has been kicked. In the absence of Football Association funding, the squad of 14 history-making players will travel to Moldova to begin qualifiers for the long overdue inaugural Fifa Futsal Women’s World Cup on Wednesday after months of “blood, sweat and tears” raising funds to pay for kit, equipment and training camps.
The team have not yet played a match owing to cost constraints and have been sharing cheaper training venues away from St George’s Park with the resurrected men’s squad, who have resorted to their own urgent online appeals to help plug a more daunting £95,000 funding gap by 25 October to guarantee a return to competition in the Uefa 2026 Euros qualifiers four years after the team was scrapped by the FA.
