IT is an exciting time for young footballers across Bolton and Bury after league officials were given the green-light to set up a futsal league in the area.

Futsal is a type of football played on a smaller field and mainly indoors.

It is similar to five-a-side football and was developed in Brazil in the 1930s and 1940s.

The game is played between two teams of five players, one of whom is the goalkeeper.

Unlimited substitutions are permitted and unlike some other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface and the walls or boards are not used.

Futsal is also played with a smaller ball with less bounce than a regular football.

Darren Smith, manager of Daisy Hill Under-10s who are one of the clubs taking part in the scheme, said: “The initial idea behind Futsal was to provide the opportunity for Daisy Hill Juniors to play football over the winter period.

“As many managers know who are involved in grassroots football the months of December, January and February can present many challenges and the majority of our games have been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and waterlogged pitches.

“During December and January we have only played two matches out of a possible eight.

“A meeting with Gary Russell from Bolton, Bury and District Football League was arranged to discuss our intentions and to ask for their support and input.

“The meeting proved fruitful and it was agreed that Daisy Hill and Aspull u10’s would run a six-week pilot in order to find out what children, parents and other managers thought about the format we were proposing and Futsal in general.

“The pilot has been running for a month and six teams every week have been playing Futsal in the comfort of a sports hall.

“That’s probably over 200 children involved in football that would otherwise have had little or no game time in a two-month period.”

Ex-Wanderers player Kevin Davies has sampled the sessions first hand.

He said: “I must admit I knew very little about Futsal but have read a lot of reports on how it can be an important tool to help develop young players.

“I left totally convinced it is something we should involve our kids with particularly over the cold winter months.

“The kids loved it, it was fast paced, lots of great passing and moving and lots of goals, which is what the kids really love at the end there were lots of red faces and boys asking when can we play it again.

“Increased touches per player and being constantly on the move will benefit them all.

“Crucially, it was not all about the result, neither team asked about the score.”