Grant Campbell is targeting the European stage after a successful first season for futsal in Aberdeen.
The former Breedon Highland League midfielder started running coaching sessions for children last October before setting up the Aberdeen Futsal League in January.
Eight teams competed in the division, which is part of the national structure, with Campbell’s own side – Aberdeen Futsal Academy – winning it and gaining promotion to Scotland’s top flight, the Scottish Futsal Super League.
On top of that Aberdeen Futsal Academy managed to win the Scottish Cup at their first attempt, defeating Dundee Futsal Club 6-3 in the final.
Alongside Campbell the team features a number of familiar faces from north football such as Owen Cairns, Alan Redford, Chris Angus and David Booth.
Next season is set to begin in late September and Campbell is looking forward to competing at a national level with the Super League winners earning a place in the Futsal Champions League.
The ex-Wick Academy, Huntly, Cove Rangers and Fraserburgh player said: “The first season went extremely well.
“The Aberdeen League was a big success. The biggest positive was how smoothly it ran, officials were quickly acclimatised to it and the games were of a good standard.
“We’re looking forward to continuing that next season.
“We got a chance to test ourselves against some of the better teams in the Scottish Cup which was a bit of an unknown for us.
“But it was really good. The top team in the country is the Perth Saltires, they won the national league and will go into the Champions League qualifiers this summer.
‘Clash of styles’
“They were knocked out unexpectedly in the early rounds which made it a very open competition.
“We were the unknown quantity and we were maybe a team others didn’t want to draw.
“It was almost like a clash of two styles: pure futsal teams with rehearsed patterns of play and movement against an ex-Highland League select trying to adjust and adapt.
“We did have spells where we struggled, but with the players we’ve got with thousands of Highland League appearances between us once we got a foothold we looked pretty comfortable in the end.
“What’s exciting about next season is the chance to go into the national league and see where we stack up against the likes of Perth Saltires.
“We managed to beat the second and third-placed teams in the Scottish Cup, but from what I can gather Perth are out on their own a wee bit.
“That carrot of trying to compete and potentially get into the Champions League is a big thing.”
Scope for further growth
Looking to the future Campbell hopes to increase the size of the Aberdeen League and generate some excitement for their home Super League games which are played at Robert Gordon University.
He added: “There’s a lot of opportunity in futsal, we’re hoping to increase the regional league to 10 or 12 for next season.
“We also want to build some excitement around our games in the national league.
“RGU have been tremendous, they’ve given the green light for us to paint an international size court in Aberdeen and we’ve had phenomenal backing from Azets accountancy firm, who sponsor us.
“We’re going to be able to run our home games in Aberdeen on Sundays, which was in doubt for a while.
“We’re hoping to get a lot of the children who come to our youth futsal sessions to come along and get involved.”