World of Soccer

It’s World of FOOTBALL not Soccer! Improved 4G style playing surfaces. 1 «academy» pitch (in separate building) with 10 varying size 5s pitches (named after famous stadia from around world). Busy at weekend including used occasionally for Ultimate frisbee. The changing facilities are pretty manky.

I play 6 a side here every Saturday. We have a bond which guarantees a regular slot. 3g style «long grass» artificial surfaces which are in decent shape. 1 big pitch (in separate building) 10 smaller 5s pitches. Facilities are OK but changing could be better, cleaner etc. Vending machines.

Located out at the Corn Exchange, you can reach World of Football by the airport bus or no. 37 from the centre of Edinburgh. It has 9 sheltered five-​aside pitches, as well as 1 seven-​aside pitch. The surface is a ‘Desso Challenge Pro’ (apparently), which would be similar to astro if astro was covered in little particles of black rubber. These bits of rubber are used to preserve the surface and allow the ball to bounce more naturally. However, they get everywhere, in fact my flat is covered in them; they fill up your shoes like sand at the beach. Also, in common with astro, slide tackles are not recommended on this surface as the friction will cut open your knees. World of soccer is a good option if you want to play fives with friends.

I used to come here every week for 5 a side, hopping on the 37 to get suitably knackered and depressingly outskilled by some cocky little 13 year old gobshite. Apart from this ritual humiliation, I had great fun there. The teams are split into two main types, the school kids that are really keen and generally pretty good (if dirty) and then there’s the uni /​post school kids, who are just doing it to keep fit and have a bit of a kick about with their mates.
Because of this some of the matches can be irritating, with some people taking it way too seriously and getting aggressive. On the other hand you can have some really good laughs, when people just treat it as a good laugh, and nothing too important. There is definitely the competitive element, but when it is played as a game not life or death, the matches are hilarious.
There are a good number of pitches here (about 10 if I remember correctly) and it is not too expensive to play. The downside is the turf which is so irritating. It rips your skin to shreds like sand based astroturf and there are these bloody little black bits of rubber, which go places you won’t even imagine.

I come here every Wednesday with my five a side football team partaking in the student league and I absolutely love it there, despite my team narrowly avoiding coming bottom last season! I have played in various different five a side pitches and these pitches are amongst the best I have played on.
There are good facilities with changing rooms adjacent to the pitches, which are always kept clean and there lockers are also available.
One thing that does intrigue me about World of Soccer is that 5 a side games last an hour, with about a 2 minute half time «break». No where else have I seen a 5 a side game go on so long and is a real test of endurance.
My main reservation about World of Soccer is the price. To enter your team you need to pay £25 and this is fine if there are loads of your mates wanting to play. But if there are only 5 or 6 of you, it can be quite costly at around £5 per person.

The key to football is not silky skills and overhead kicks, but patience, organisation, discipline and tactics. All this goes out the window as soon as you set foot on a five-​a-​side pitch. Matches descend into a chaotic frenzy, bargain bucket Lionel Messis hog the ball constantly yet prove utterly ineffective, and nobody can remember what the score is.
To be fair, World of Soccer is well priced and does have excellent facilities for lovers of this very hectic and condensed version of the peoples’ game, but I’d much rather be involved in a tightly contested 0 – 0 on a proper pitch any day of the week.

Naturally, there’s nothing flamboyant or particularly impressive about an indoor football venue or indeed World of Soccer.
Here, you’ll find an overwhelming aroma of sweat, rowdy football enthusiasts and the odd competitive scuffle. Pay £2.50 and you and ten chums can have this in abundance and at a pretty decent price I might add.
All of the above is exactly what I’ve come to expect of indoor five aside football, and I love it. So if you fancy the same, World of Soccer is an ideal host for such boisterous behaviour… all within the safe confinement of netting and MDF partitions of course, so don’t fret too much.