The ISF is the fastest growing football organisation in the world.
New members are joining all the time, as they look to be part of something dynamic, fresh and new.
This week, we are thrilled to welcome Peru to the biggest sporting family on the planet.
Here, we speak to Luis Olarte, from their Socca Federation, to get the lowdown on everything to do with 6 a side football in Peru, as well as his hopes for the World Cup, why they hope a little bit of star quality will rub off on their players and why he’s always got half an eye on events at Anfield in the UK!
Welcome to the ISF, Luis, tell us a little about your journey up to this point?
Perú’s team have good expectations about the world tournament, we are very pleased to be part of this new movement of Socca.
What about socca in Peru, how popular a sport is it?
Socca is not recognised widely in Perú yet, but we think that with this Socca world cup will create a big sound in all the cities throughout the country. 7 a side is most Popular in Perú, in our tournaments we set up socca banners recently to start people .
We seem to have a lot of South American teams, Brazil, obviously played in the last world cup, but also Brazil were welcome additions to the last tournament and Colombia have recently have signed up too, is Socca growing on the continent?
7 side is popular In Perú, we have 5 years working in leagues in this area
The World Cup is coming around. The 11 a side national team was in Russia, how are you guys looking to do in Crete?
We are a new team, in the past our national team have good results, Americas Cup champion (7 side at 2016). Peru national team (7 side) fan Page have more than 70K followers https://www.facebook.com/SeleccionPeruanaF7
How are you choosing your national team? Some countries have trials, some use their Championship winners, what is it for you?
We have a tournament, the players are all from different teams.
Over the years, Peru has had many notable players, Claudio Pizzaro and Nolberto Solano are maybe the best known to Europeans recently, who is it that the socca players today are looking up to?
Andres Mendoza is the most famous player in our socca league,he played in Brugge (Belgium) and Olympique de Marsella (France). He played in Peru 11 side with Pizarro and Solano.T
o find out more about him, click here:
Mendoza is part of our Team, but he will not be in Crete because we are limited in budget.
Finally just for fun…..are you a football fan yourself? Who do you support?
Of course, In Peru I am Alianza Lima fan, and in Europe fan of Liverpool.