Fair City Santos Futsal Club




(UEFA Cup Squad 09/10)

FC Santos won the Maccabi GB futsal tournament on March 24 2008

Sixteen teams competed in the Maccabi Open Futsal Tournament held at Hertfordshire Sports Village, Hatfield.

The Scottish Santos team, managed by Mark Potter, flew down from Perth on the day and were joined by their 18-year-old London based player, Yoav Lebens.

Santos, who have won the Scottish Premier Futsal League for the past two years were invited to play in the competition in order to help raise the profile of sport ahead of 2009 Maccabiah Games.

They won all their group games before defeating Faithfold 6-1 in the quarter-final and Hendon 3-1 in the semis.

The final was played between Santos and the Manchester Futsal League Team, who had also been invited to take part in the competition. The final was decided on penalties with Santos winning 2-0 after the match had ended in 3-3.

The day was organised and run by Keith Herman and Jonathan Cainer, the manager and assistant manager of the Open Futsal Squad for the 2009 Maccabiah Games.

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UEFA Cup 2006

Scotland are one of six nations joining the UEFA Futsal family in 2006/07 by supplying a team to the leading European club tournament - and the competition to be that lucky team begins this weekend when the FPL Scotland Serie A launches.

Eight compete
Eight sides - Aberdeen Cosmos, Dundee Dynamos, Edinburgh United, Fair City Santos, Glasgow City, Glasgow Maccabi, Inverness Wanderers and Perth New Muirton - will compete between now and 5 August in venues in Glasgow, Perth and Edinburgh. The eventual winners will enter September's UEFA Futsal Cup preliminary round, in which Austria, Germany, Malta, Sweden and Switzerland will also have representatives for the first time.

Schedule
The Scottish tournament has gained sponsorship from Tennents beer and is also scheduled to be covered by a digital television station. Fixtures start with matches this Saturday and Sunday at Gorbals Leisure Centre, Glasgow, and continue on 15/16 July at Bells Leisure Centre, Perth, before finishing three weeks later at Edinburgh's Jack Kane Centre.

Santos hopes
Mark Potter is player-manager of the Perth-based Santos, who were formed in 2000 and have dominated their local competitions. He told uefa.com: "The team are thrilled to be involved in the inaugural National Futsal Premier League and have high hopes of making a challenge for the title, although we are well aware of the difficult matches ahead. The toughest games are expected from Glasgow City, winners of the national cup event last year, Inverness Wanderers and Edinburgh United. The average age of our side is around 23, so the players are on a steep learning curve, but experience from tournaments in Belgium, Spain and England will hopefully stand us in good stead."

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Fair City Santos from Perth will be Scotland's first representatives in the UEFA Futsal Cup next month after clinching the national Futsal Premier League title.

Tight race
Santos had won all seven regular-season games and progressed with Glasgow City, Perth North Muirton and Edinburgh United to last weekend's play-offs in Perth. In a tight race, Santos defeated North Muirton 10-6 in their final match to pip 2005 Scottish champions Glasgow on goal difference. Santos player-manager Mark Potter said: "I'd like to say how tremendously proud of the players I am and we are delighted to be Scotland's first-ever representatives at European level. The level of competition in the national league, particularly among the top sides, was excellent. To come out on top is a great achievement for the club."

'Tough matches'
His team will now stage UEFA Futsal Cup preliminary round Group A from 13-16 September, where they will play French title-holders Roubaix Futsal and two other tournament debutants, FC Adana Yerevan of Armenia and Finland's Futsal Mad Max for the one available berth in the Main round against Sporting Clube de Portugal, Clearex Chorzów and KMF Alfa Parf Skopje. Potter added: "We know we are in for three very tough games in the UEFA Futsal Cup qualifying tournament, but we will work extremely hard to try to progress further."

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Fair City Santos take second place Scottish Futsal Open

Perth, Scotland. July 2004.
Scottish Open International Futsal Tournament 2004

FC Camelot of Moldova warmed up for UEFA Futsal Champions League duties in the Czech Republic by retaining their Scottish Open trophy.

The holders again went through the event unbeaten, although their League 1 opponents C.S. Rapid and Perth-based team FC Santos both proved tougher opposition than last season. Allied to a stern challenge from FC Argo, also of Moldova, an improved GCLS England side and a spirited performance from Inverness Wanderers the quality of opposition for Camelot improved dramatically this season and their winning margin of only one point over Santos in the Open League event bears witness to this. Indeed, the improvement in the Santos performance in dropping points only to the Champions gives some indication of the raised standards throughout.

 The event threw up some excellent games, with 138 goals in 21 games, an average of almost 7 a game, and some excellent team and individual performances.

Inverness Wanderers, currently playing in the newly formed FPL Scottish Futsal League – Inverness, were given a true baptism of fire with the opening fixture of the event against Camelot, but proved they were not going to be fazed by reputations or inexperience in a solid display.

 The Inverness team eventually finished sixth in the event but this certainly does not do justice to the contribution the team made to the event. Only a last second winner from second placed Santos in their head to head fixture secured three points for the Perth team so the Inverness lads acquitted themselves admirably. Player Coach Scott Mackain had a well-organised unit together for the tournament which can only improve with experience and in Evan MacDonald the Inverness team had the 2004 “Player of the Tournament”.

Perth’s Santos team opened up their challenge missing a number of key players but displayed strength in depth they’ve not previously been able to boast with 2 outstanding performances on the opening night.

CS Rapid were expected to provide the stiffest challenge to Camelot supremacy and were confident of taking the title from their League opponents. An opening match rout of a below strength Perth Brazil looked to be proof that this might be the case, with Hilotil scoring five in the match. This contributed to his overall total of 13, making him the top goalscorer.

 GCLS star Paul Goodhand was again also in prolific form being the only other player to achieve double figures with 10 goals and as expected he was close to winning the “Player of the Tournament” award yet again. GCLS opening fixture was against Camelot and again the Champions netted four, this time without reply. GCLS possibly had one eye on their second fixture of the evening against Santos, looking for revenge of last seasons defeat.

The second days play brought a number of top class games, with the opening fixture providing the first shock with Rapid holding Camelot to a draw, meaning the first ever dropped points for the Moldavian team, and reinforcing the Rapid claims of supremacy.

However, the Rapid challenge faltered with defeat to Argo in their next match. With Santos snatching a last gasp win against Inverness this meant that the Santos versus Rapid game had added pressure.

A tremendous Santos performance resulted in a 4-2 win for the Perth team leaving the Santos team as the only real challengers to the Camelot for the title.

It says much about the improvement in British Futsal that Camelot were required to increase their level of performance against Santos, GCLS and Inverness in each game and with the Moldavians planning their assault on the UEFA Champions League there cannot be long before British sides are competing at this level favourably.

FINAL TABLE

Team                          P         W        D         L          F          A         PTS    GD

Camelot                     6          5          1          0          23        4          16        19

FC Santos Perth        6          5          0          1          22        11        15        11

CS Rapid                   6          3          1          2          34        12        10        22

Argo                          6          3          1          2          20        16        10          4

GCLS                         6          2          0          4          18        23        6          -5

Inverness Wdrs          6          1          1          4          12        31        4          -19

Perth Brazil               6          0          0          6          9          43        0          -34