Manchester Futsal Club is an English professional futsal club based in Greater Manchester. They have competed in the National FA Futsal League since its inception and are one of the most prominent and established futsal clubs in Great Britain. The club was created in March 2006, and was the first futsal club to receive the FA's Charter Standard in England.TheFA.com - Futsal's Standard bearers As well as working with Manchester College, the city's University futsal teams and neighbouring football clubs in the Greater Manchester area, the club also delivers a number of Manchester FA Futsal 5's leagues and futsal specific coaching sessions in local schools, sports clubs and various community projects within the Greater Manchester area.
First team history 2006 - 2013 Upon being established the club competed in the Manchester FA Regional Futsal league from September 2006. Samuel Richardson captained the team to league success in March 2007 with the team scoring more than eighty goals in the fourteen fixtures. 2007 also saw the club compete in its first tournament at the Tees Valley Futsal Cup. The team won all its group and subsequent knockout games before losing a tiring final in extra time and finished runners up to Perth Futsal Club. Towards the latter part of 2007 the FA created the FA Futsal League, complementing the longer standing annual FA Futsal Cup. The team was accepted into the Northern Conference, tying in with the club being one of the first futsal clubs in the country to be accredited at FA Charter Standard.
The club started its first game in the newly formed FA National Northern Conference with a 3–2 loss, Doug Reed eventually led the team to a second-place finish, secured by a win over Sheffield Hallamshire Futsal. Many of the club's players reached double figures, with the club's vice captain Ilya Ovechkin leading the club and northern conference in goals scored. Midway through the season the club appointed the Brazilian tactician Rodrigo Freitas in a dual club manager/coach role, with Simon Wright moving up to a general manager position.
A second-place finish meant they qualified for the National Play-off Finals, the club faced a three-way group, matched against the Midland teams of Ipswich Wolves and Birmingham Tigers. Despite being down 4–0 in their first game, Manchester managed to finish their game with the heavily tipped and reigning champions Ipswich Wolves, 4–4. The second game saw Manchester face Birmingham Tigers, with the fatigue of the first game evident, the Manchester team succumbed to an 8–5 loss, which knocked the club out of the winners brackets. A depleted Ipswich Wolves team later lost in the overall playoff final to Helvecia Futsal, with Manchester finishing 6th overall.
The second season in the National League saw a string of squad changes, with a number of established players leaving the club for various reasons and a number of subsequent new players coming in. The team suffered various team changes due to injuries and the time taken to bed new players to the game, into the team. They finished in third place, missing out on a play-off place by two points, a controversial 5–4 loss to Loughborough University being the most crucial result of the season. Samuel Richardson topped the club's goal scoring, with seven goals, which highlighted the difference between the relative success of 2008's campaign contrasted with the flat 2009 season.
Doug Reed and Ross Farran broke into the England F-30 squad, with Reed later moving on to represent and establish himself within the England international team. Furthermore, Reed went on to sign a one-year deal with Spanish second division team Lanzarote Tias Yaiza at the end of the season, becoming one of the first English players to compete professionally in the country. Farran became one of four winners of the Nike "Most Wanted" Accolades, the winners selected by Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson. He shortly became a part of the Nike Academy squad. After being invited by Gothenburg Futsal Club, the club competed in its first game on international soil. Manchester ended the tournament in third place, competing against other clubs from Sweden and Uruguay.
The 2010 campaign started off disappointingly, but under the captaincy of Anthony Haralambous, the team remained unbeaten from their opening day defeat, battling for the Northern Conference title with Sheffield throughout the season. Ultimately, the penultimate game of the season between the two clubs decided the championship, with Sheffield romping to an emphatic 6–1 victory that effectively sealed the title. Manchester remained in second place and in strong contention for a playoff spot, which they secured with a final day 3–2 victory over third-placed Tranmere Victoria.
At the national finals, despite having the majority of the play, Manchester lost their first game to an efficient Team United Birmingham, 3–2. In a closely fought second match, Manchester lost 5-4 to Spartans. Overall results placed Manchester 5th nationally. Helvecia were crowned as national champions for a third time in a row, after beating Spartans in an exhilarating final.
The team also qualified and competed in the FA Futsal Cup 2010, topping their qualifying group unbeaten and in the process avenging their previous years National Finals loss to Team United Birmingham. The team were eventually knocked out in the quarter-finals via a controversial "ghost goal" 1–0 loss to Northern rivals Sheffield. Helvecia were again the eventual winners of the tournament, beating rivals Spartans in an extra time final.
At the start of the year the club's top scorer Samuel Richardson was selected for the England training squad and later made his full international debut for the National team in October 2010, vs. Macedonia.
Manchester's manager and coach, Rodrigo Freitas, announced that the FA Futsal Cup would be his last in charge. In October, the club announced Periklies Antoniou as the new coach of the squad, together with the introduction of assistant coach Daniel Berdejo-del-Fresno to complete the new management line-up. Over the course of the pre-season the new management evaluated the team and the final squad for the National League 2011 was selected in November.
After the previous season's achievements, the club started as strongly tipped contenders for the Northern title. The first game of the season suggested that winning that elusive title would be no guarantee as they drew at home to a strengthened Leeds team. After dropping these two points, the team went on a six-game winning streak, including a 6–4 win over Sheffield, that put the club in pole position midway through the season. Sheffield, the reigning Northern champions, again proved the club's closest rivals come the season's end and after an incredibly tight 25 minutes of action in the returning tie; Sheffield showed a final third ruthless streak that ended in a 7–2 loss for Manchester. The title was still a two horse race, but Manchester held the advantage and only needed to win their remaining fixtures to take the top spot. In the club's final game, a resilient Middlesbrough held on to spring a surprising 3–2 victory over the club, allowed Sheffield to pip the club, with a final fixtures victory over Tranmere Victoria.
For the third successive year, the club qualified for the National Finals. In their first group game, vs Helvecia, the clubs were quite evenly matched throughout large parts of the game, but Helvecia's experience and ability to make scoring opportunities count shone through and they ran out as 4–1 winners. In the second group game the team faced a Chippenham side that was threadbare in squad size. Manchester showed an extreme ruthlessness that carried ten different scorers and finished 20–1, a playoff record. Helvecia successfully defended their hold of the national championship, beating Sheffield in the Grand Final.
This left the FA Futsal Cup as the final tournament of the season for the club. In similar fashion to the club's previous manager, this would also be Periklies Antoniou final weekend as the club head coach. The team topped their group beating Team Baltic to second place due to a greater goal difference. This was helped by the 18–1 thrashing over Team Northumbria, which set the record for the largest FA Futsal Cup finals win.
After beating Passlona in the quarter-finals, the team faced the FA Futsal Cup holders and National Champions, Helvecia. With the game closely poised and looking to go into extra time, Ilya Ovechkin scored a breakaway goal with minutes left and the club saw the game out, setting up a final with Team Baltic. In the final, a Stuart Cook hat trick and goals from Doug Reed and Samuel Richardson sealed a 5–2 victory in the final, confirming the club as 2011 FA Futsal Cup champions. Additionally, some of the club's players received individual awards based on their performances. Doug Reed was named player of the tournament and Daniel Haralambous the tournaments top scorer.
Marcos Leon took charge of the first team and the campaign started with an emphatic opening day 11–1 victory over Tranmere Rovers, but then the club shortly succumbed to their biggest loss in recent years, losing 5–0 at home to Middlesbrough. The magnitude of the loss appeared to galvanise the players and from that point onwards, they remained unbeaten for the remainder of the season.
Crucial last minute goals to earn a vital win away at Sheffield and a draw away at Middlesbrough, meant the team remained in pole position for the majority of the season and they went on to claim their first National League North conference title. In the process they scored 118 goals in the 12 game campaign, whilst only conceding 27 and went on to record the league's largest recorded victory margin, with a 27–0 massacre over Hull Futsal at the Velodrome. Samuel Richardson finished as both the club's and the league's top scorer with 30 goals.
In the first game of the National finals, the team were defeated 9-4 by Oxford Lions who managed to punish Manchester's use of playing with a flying goal keeper for the majority of the game. After Genesis beat Oxford Lions in the second group game, Manchester still had an outside chance to qualify, but they were only able to beat Genesis 7–3. Oxford Lions qualified from the group on goal difference and subsequently lost to Helvecia in the Grand Final. Samuel Richardson finished as the first English golden boot winner at the Grand Finals, with 5 goals.
This campaign was to be Daniel Berdejo-del-Fresno last with the club, as he moved on to be head coach of Sheffield and a part of the newly adjusted England national coaching set up.
At the beginning of the year Stuart Cook returned to the England national squad after a long absence out due to a knee injury and gained his return call up in a friendly match vs. France. At the end of the year he scored his first goal for his country, in a 3–2 victory away against Denmark. In the same year Ross Bond made the progression from the England development squad to the full team and later on in the year made his full international debut vs. Turkey.
In 2013, the team again remained toe to toe all the way to the final game of the season and despite scoring over 100 goals and remaining unbeaten until the final game of the season, a Sheffield victory resigned the club to second position in the North. In the Super League playoffs, they comfortably dispatched Team Birmingham twice, but lost to Helveica who took the one and only finals spot, with Stuart Cook finishing the season as the club's top goal scorer with 22 goals. Subsequently, at the end of this season, Frank Chiarella took over the reins of first team manager.
2014 – 2017