Meet your champions: the Chiback squad

This is the squad that set the standard for the whole Emagumeni Futsal League — together for the photo that says everything about their season.

Banana, Blessed, Shawn Zino, Brandon, Komorai, Rasta and Bobby carried Chiback through twelve unbeaten games. A seven-man squad in a league where some sides rotate fifteen: no hiding places, no easy minutes, every player on the pitch for almost every game.

That is the part of the record worth sitting with. Depth wins leagues in most competitions. Chiback won this one on consistency — the same faces, week after week, at Madokero.

A seven-man roster changes how a team has to play. With one rolling substitute available for most of a match, there is no way to press flat out for forty minutes and no way to hide a tired player in a back line. Chiback managed the game state instead: quick starts, control of possession once ahead, and a willingness to slow the tempo when the alternative was an open game against a bigger squad.

It also changes what happens when someone is missing. Sides carrying twelve or fifteen players can absorb a late call-off. A seven-man squad cannot, and turning up complete for twelve consecutive fixtures across a full season is its own kind of achievement — one that has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with a group that took it seriously.

The photo was taken on 25 June 2026, minutes after the trophy lift, on the same floodlit pitch where the season had been decided. Everyone in it played a part in a record that now sits at the top of the table: twelve played, twelve won, thirty-six points from thirty-six.

Squads for the next campaign are forming now. Any team that fancies ending this run can put their name down — and the pitches are open for hire any day of the week if you would rather train first.