Courtesy: www.uefa.com


Nations gather for draw

Europe's leading Futsal nations will find out on Wednesday who they will face in the first qualifying round for the FIFA Futsal World Championship.

Finals in Asia
The fifth staging of the finals, to be played towards the end of next year in Chinese Taipei, will feature five European teams. Wednesday's draw at 13.30CET in Nyon, Switzerland will divide the 32 UEFA entrants into ten groups. Groups 1 and 2 will have four teams, while Groups 3 to 10 will have three teams each.

Host countries
Ten nations will act as hosts for the groups and will be the first drawn out. These are Italy, Czech Republic, Portugal, Croatia, Slovenia, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Latvia, Lithuania and Cyprus. However, the position each nation will take in their respective groups will depend on their coefficent ranking.

Top teams
A second pot containing the five highest-ranked teams not acting as hosts, including holders Spain, will then be brought into play. These will be assigned into position one in the groups in descending order from Group 1 to Group 10, missing out groups where the hosts have already been assigned into position one.

Next best
A third pot will contain the next nine ranked teams. These will be assigned into position two in the groups in descending order from Group 1 to Group 10, missing out groups where the hosts have already been assigned into position two.

Remaining nations
The fourth pot will feature the eight remaining teams. These will be assigned into position three in the groups in descending order from Group 1 to Group 10, missing out groups where the hosts have already been assigned into position three. The remaining two nations will be drawn into position four in Groups 1 and 2.

Five play-offs
Following the first qualifying round, the ten group winners will be paired into ties for home-and-away play-offs according to their national ranking. The highest-ranked group winner will play the tenth ranked group winner, the second against the ninth, the third against the eighth, the fourth against the seventh and the fifth against the sixth.

Spain success
The first Futsal world finals were held in the Netherlands in 1989, followed by Hong Kong in 1992, Spain in 1996 and then Guatemala in 2000. Spain are the reigning champions after beating Brazil 4-3 in the final three years ago.

2003/04 FIFA World Futsal Championship European entrants

Country
Spain*
Italy
Russia
Ukraine
Czech Republic
Portugal
Croatia
Netherlands
Slovenia
Poland
Belgium
Hungary
Serbia and Montenegro
Andorra
Belarus
Azerbaijan
Slovakia
F.Y.R. Macedonia
Israel
Greece
Moldova
Finland
France
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Georgia
Latvia
Lithuania
Armenia
Cyprus
Kazakhstan
Albania
Romania


*Spain is seeded team No1 as world champions, the ranking is then made according to each nation's coefficent. In the case of an equal coefficient, the last result in a competition is used to differentiate between teams.