Courtesy: UEFA.com


Futsal Cup hopefuls prepare for draw

Thursday 2 July 2009

by Paul Saffer from London


The ninth edition of the UEFA Futsal Cup gets into gear when the draw for the 2009/10 Preliminary and Main rounds are made at 13.30CET in Nyon.

Preliminary round
A record 48 teams are involved in this season's competition, and 27 will begin in the Preliminary round, including the first-ever entrants from Norway and Turkey, Nidaros Futsal and Gazi Üniversitesi respectively. Each side will be placed in one of four seeding categories depending on their coefficient, with one 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. FC Allstars Wiener Neustadt representing Austria.

Charleroi at home
Seven group winners from this stage, played from 15 to 23 August, will join 17 other sides in the Main round, consisting of six pools of four teams. Again there will be one team in each group from four seeding categories, with 2005 winners Action 21 Charleroi of Belgium 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 between 26 September and 4 October.

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: holders Interviú Madrid, 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.







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