If we regard football ‘a poor man’s game’, futsal is probably its more affluent cousin. Futsal turfs mushrooming all over can attest to the game’s popularity with the working professionals of the city. Mumbai has eagerly taken to this new format of playing football (futsal is usually played with five member teams and in a more intense hour long format) as it is a convenient fix for many with unpredictable and grueling work schedules.
These new football turfs are often times located near business parks (KICK!, Powai), commercial hubs (Astro Sports, Kamala Mills), or use malls (Dream Fields, Inorbit Malad and Vashi), or sometimes they use the mall’s rooftops (Tiger Play, Citi Mall, Oshiwara). Such creative use of the limited space available in Mumbai is in part, the reason there is a demand for turfs to begin with. Kean Lewis, the young football star from Mumbai who now plays for the prestigious Mouhan Bagan Club in Kolkata, astutely observed that Kolkata doesn’t have nearly as many football turfs as Mumbai does, considering the city has plenty of public parks and grounds. Futsal turfs then, offer an effective solution for those who can afford rates ranging anywhere from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 3500 to play an hour long game.
“Working professionals make up about 80% of our clientele in Mumbai and Bangalore”, said Ankit Chauhan, the City Head for Dream Fields. “These people pull long shifts, so turf futsal at hours they can make it, is perfect for them because we have slots that begin from 6 a.m., and close as late as 2 a.m.”, he added. Since turfs use rubber or nylon grass pitches, the risk of injury is gravely reduced, resulting in a fast-paced and stamina-testing game format. “You can see people from diverse age groups: from people in their early 20’s to mid 40’s. Basically, the people who now have the means to play a marginally less injurious game” observed KICK’s manager, Nagendra Singh.
These turfs don’t just appeal to these professionals looking to unwind after a long day; many companies like HCL, HDFC, Airtel, Deutsche bank, and even smaller start-ups like housing.com rent these turfs out annually or on a quarterly basis. Vodafone uses this turf time to conduct quarterly HR events and footsal tournaments as a team-building exercise. OSCAR (Organisation for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility) has held charity tournaments at turfs Footbrawl (Mega Mall, Andheri West) and the Arena (Saki Naka) for the past two years with encouraging results. Viraj Shetty, a marketing executive for Spak Orgochem who played in the OSCAR Football Tournament in 2013 remarked, “Those of us who are regular players are anyway going to spend some amount on turf games, we don’t mind shelling out more if it is for a good cause”.
“Going by the demand and its reach, futsal is here to stay” observed PIFA Business Development manager and coach Pradyumana Reddy. He is not far off the mark since
schools like Podar International at Powai use the KICK! turf to train students, while Ryan International has partnered with Dream Fields and invested in a FIFA approved Astro Turf which Dream Fields then rents out after school hours and on weekends. Ankit Chauhan hopes that this relationship with the Ryan International schools will help further proliferate futsal among Mumbaikars.
It looks like not only is futsal about to become a permanent fixture in the city’s landscape, but also likely to only remain accessible to the city’s more affluent footballers.
