France savours feast of futsal

France's FIFA World Cup heroes of 1998 were held to a 5-5 draw by Paris Saint-Germain FC as futsal was the star attraction in Paris on Sunday.

Futsal spectacular
A crowd of 15,000 gathered at the famous Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy, with hundreds of thousands more watching on television, as the small-sided game received its most dramatic boost in France to date, and the five-hour RTL-Futsal tournament proved a great success. Four teams took part in the event which started with Zinédine Zidane's stars of '98 securing a 5-0 win against Club des Internationaux Français (CIF). Zidane's trickery was evident in Aimé Jacquet's side but Bixente Lizarazu's powerful runs also proved well suited to futsal.

Deschamps enthusiastic
Didier Deschamps was excited to compete in the new discipline, taking time off from his job as coach of Juventus. "On such a surface and with a small pitch, technical players have the edge," he said. "It's really another game but so fascinating." The other opening game saw the French national futsal side lose 3-2 against a PSG selection featuring the likes of Pauleta, Bonaventure Kalou and Jérôme Rothen. "We were a bit surprised to be up against such players, but we showed how spectacular our sport can be," said France futsal player Zoran Markovic.

Promise honoured
PSG are second from bottom in Ligue 1, and might easily have withdrawn from the tournament to have extra training, but club president Alain Cayzac still lent his support to the event, saying: "Our side promised to back futsal and we always fulfil our promises." The final proved to be a real delight, with PSG being denied a win by a late Zidane goal - his second of the night. With no extra time planned, an honourable tie marked a happy ending for the tournament. French sports minister Jean-François Lamour concluded that futsal was "easier to play than normal football" while Zidane was hungry for more. "I hope we're back next year," he said.