Courtesy: UEFA.com

Note: due to the fact that this report has been written before the end of the past season, some indications will result as wrong

Team Profile: Belgium

Belgium are one of the longest-serving futsal nations and have ended their seven-year exile from the finals by reaching the 2010 UEFA European Futsal Championship. The team made their bow as early as 22 April 1977, beating the Netherlands 7-2 in Genk, and the two nations played regularly before other countries entered the fray. Belgium took part in the early FIFA unofficial tournaments, finishing runners-up in the second in 1987, and two years later lost on penalties to Brazil in the inaugural FIFA Futsal World Cup semi-finals. After the Belgian Football Association took over the sport in 1991/92, the team reached the World Cup second group stage in 1996 and 2000.

They took bronze in the initial UEFA tournament of 1996, but their only UEFA European Futsal Championship qualifications have been in 1999 and 2003, both times securing just a single point. They missed out in 2005 and 2007, but are back this time, while at club level Action 21 Charleroi were a strong force in the early history of the UEFA Futsal Cup, reaching the first two finals in 2001/02 and 2002/03 before winning the trophy in 2004/05. In all there are around 1,100 futsal clubs in Belgium.

How they qualified
Belgium staged Group 5 in Antwerp and qualified in impressive style. They opened with a 6-0 defeat of FYR Macedonia, aided by a Karim Chaibai hat-trick. He scored twice as Belgium came from behind to beat Greece 4-1, meaning they only needed a draw with Serbia, and they triumphed 4-3.

Key players
Futsal Topsport Antwerpen's Karim Bachar has been the dominant player in recent years, already Belgium's all-time leading scorer and closing in on becoming the first player to 100 caps. Namesake Karim Chaibai, who joined Bachar at Antwerp in 2008 from former European champions Action 21 Charleroi, scored six of Belgium's 14 goals in qualifying.

Tournament record
2007: Did not qualify
2005: Did not qualify
2003: Group stage
2001: Did not qualify
1999: Group stage
1996: Third place


Coach Profile: Benny Meurs

Date of birth: 26 June 1963

Playing career: (football) Stade Louvaniste, K. Berchem Sport, (futsal) TL Mortsel, Isola Hoeselt, ZVC Hove, GP Aartselaar

Coaching career: (football) K. Berchem Sport youth, KFC Sint-Job, SKR Leest, SC Merksem, (futsal) ZVK Affligem, Belgium Under-21, Belgium

Benny Meurs played in all of Belgium's national football divisions, including the top-flight with K. Berchem Sport, and appeared 12 times for the Belgium military team, with Luc Nilis among his colleagues, before taking up futsal aged 30.

He may have come to the small-sided sport late but his career burnt brightly. In 1995 he helped TL Mortsel to the Belgian Cup and a year later he was in the national side for UEFA's first European futsal tournament and converted a double penalty to score the golden goal to earn third place against Italy for the highlight of his six caps. By 1998 he was already a qualified futsal coach and in 2000 he took the helm at ZVK Affligem, within two years taking them to the top division.

In 2000 he has also earned the UEFA A licence and became a futsal instructor at the Belgian Football Association academy. In 2002 he joined the Belgium set-up full time as U21 coach as assistant to national chief Damien Knabben and took over the senior side a year later. Moulding a well-organised team quick on the counterattack, his wait to reach a major final tournament was ended in 2009 with qualification for the following year's UEFA European Futsal Championship. Since 2005 he has also been a FIFA Futsal instructor, and initiated courses in Malaysia, Iceland, Germany, Tunisia, Zambia and Belarus.


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