Courtesy: UEFA.com


Ninth UEFA Futsal Cup the biggest yet

Monday 15 June 2009

by Paul Saffer

The ninth edition of the UEFA Futsal Cup will confirm the growth of the sport in Europe with a record 48 entries from 47 nations in the continental club competition.

Maiden entries
Spain's Interviú Madrid became the first three-time winners of the trophy in April in Ekaterinburg. They lead the list of 2009/10 contenders, which includes clubs from two nations making their maiden entry, Norway and Turkey. Showing the competitive nature of futsal at domestic level, more than 20 teams are slated to make their European debuts, with the exact list of contenders to be confirmed when the remaining leagues end this month.

Preliminary round
Norwegian champions Nidaros Futsal Trondheim and the contenders from Turkey will be among 27 sides who will enter in the Preliminary round from 15 until 23 August. Each team will be placed in one of four seeding categories depending on their coefficient, with one from each category going into every group, which will also contain a team designated as mini-tournament hosts: Bulgaria's MFC Varna, Lithuania's Nautara Kaunas, Golden Futsal Team of Finland, MNK Leotar Trebinje from Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia's KMF Zelezarec Skopje, Cypriot champions AC Omonia and 1. Allstars Wiener Neustad, representing Austria.

Charleroi at home
Seven group winners from this stage will join 17 other sides in the Main round, consisting of six pools of four teams and drawn on the same day as the Preliminary round, at 13.30CET on 2 July in Nyon. Again there will be one team in each group from four seeding categories, with 2005 winners Action 21 Charleroi of Belgian joining Romania's CIP Deva, Czech side FK Era-Pack Chrudim, Croatia's MNK Potpiæan 98, Slovenian team KMN Puntar, and Hungarian champions MVFC Berettyóújfalu as mini-tournament hosts from 26 September until 4 October 2009.

Finals chance
As in previous years, the winners and runners-up from the Main round groups will progress to the Elite round draw on 13 October, alongside top four seeds: Interviú, 2008 winners MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg, that season's runners-up ElPozo Murcia FS and Kairat Almaty, semi-finalists for three of the last four years. Four Elite round mini-tournaments will be played from 14 to 22 November, with the group winners progressing to the finals, hosted by one of the qualifiers in late April.

'Great season' expected
UEFA futsal competition manager Laurent Morel said: "With 95 per cent of UEFA territory represented in the Futsal Cup, we can expect a great season in terms of competitiveness. European futsal is now reaching its cruise altitude, and we will now endeavour to develop awareness by holding quality tournaments and having a better communcation strategy. The competition after this one will be the tenth edition, and we will enter the a new cycle where we want to establish the sport as top indoor activity. There are a lot of challenges, but so far development has been very positive.








Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com