Courtesy: Gulf News


Country urged to get behind UAE in Asian Futsal Championship

Sixteen-team event to be held in Dubai from May 25

by Alaric Gomes

May 1, 2012

Dubai With less than a month to go before the AFC Futsal Championship in Dubai, organisers are hoping for the “total involvement” of UAE residents during this prestigious competition.

“We are now in the final stages of preparations with less than a month left until the opening ceremony [on May 25] and we are all ready to welcome all participating teams to the UAE,” Sarmad Al Zadjaly, CEO and Technical Director of the UAE Futsal Executive Committee, told Gulf News.

“We are setting up venues that will be family-friendly and we want residents from all over the UAE to come and cheer the UAE national team and be part of this competition.”

The preliminary round matches will be held at the indoor halls of Al Shabab and Al Wasl, while the knock-out stages will shift solely to Al Wasl Club.

The draws were held earlier this year, with hosts the UAE placed in Group A alongside Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan in the 16-team tournament.

Strong contenders and multiple Asian champions Iran are in Group C along with Australia, Qatar and South Korea, while Japan, Chinese Taipei, Tajikistan and Lebanon are in Group B and Uzbekistan, Indonesia, China and Kuwait make up Group D.

“Futsal is a spectator-friendly sport and all of us who follow football will have definitely kicked around on an indoor surface at some stage of our life. So we are expecting a huge response from the UAE public,” Al Zadjaly said.

“The national team is participating and, though there will be only five players on the field, we want the crowd to be the sixth player and push the team towards a place in the Fifa Futsal World Cup [to be held in Thailand from November 1-18].”

Some of the teams have already started making preparations for the trip to the UAE, with Qatar among the first to arrive as early as May 8. The likes of Australia, South Korea and Japan have also decided to touch down by the middle of the month to beat the jet-lag blues prior to the competition.

The official opening of the championship - to be held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman, Dubai Sports Council - will be at 5pm on May 25, after which the UAE will take on Turkmenistan in their first Group A match at Al Wasl.




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