As happens in many disciplines, playing in the top category of your sport does not always allow you to live exclusively from it. In futsal, this is especially the case in the women's category. For many players, competing at the highest level involves balancing training sessions and matches with another job or studies. Laia Rojo, a player for AE Les Corts-UBAE, the only Catalan team currently competing in the top national category, is an example of this: she has to study biomedicine to think about her future. “We cannot do anything,” she states.

The Catalan Football Federation (FCF) has decided to suspend all futsal activity in Catalonia this weekend following a serious assault on a referee during a youth match in Canet. The measure, announced Wednesday night, affects all matches scheduled for February 27th and 28th and March 1st. The incident occurred last Saturday when a fan of CFS La Unión Santa Coloma de Gramanet threw a fanny pack from the stands, which struck the referee, knocking him to the ground. The incident, which happened just minutes before the end of the match, was the final straw for referees who are denouncing a "sustained increase in verbal and physical assaults in recent weeks." Therefore, the federation wanted to take a strong response to what it considers "absolutely intolerable" events.

The world keeps turning, and he's back at El Born. This is what Javi Rodríguez (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, 1974) has done. After stints in Hungary, Ukraine, and Kuwait, he returned home this summer to lead Barça to the top of futsal. "I know all eyes are on the Barça bench, but I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible. There's pressure on someone who doesn't have a job, who can't feed their children, and has to get up at seven in the morning to go to work without knowing what they'll have at home," he tells ARA.