Courtesy: The AFC.com


LOC urges support for futsal

Thursday, 03 May 2012

Dubai: The Local Organising Committee in UAE has requested everyone to lend their to support in hosting a memorable tournament as the country prepares to host the AFC Futsal Championship 2012 starting from May 25.

The Gulf nation is hosting the futsal’s biggest continental event for the first time and with four places for the FIFA Futsal World Cup up for grabs, the country is looking to organise as well as play well during the championship.

“We are now in the final stages of preparations with less than a month left and we are ready to welcome all participating teams in the UAE,” the CEO and Technical Director of UAE Futsal Sarmad Al Zadjaly was quoted in gulfnews.com. “We are expecting a huge response from the UAE public during this championship.”

“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 Futsal World Cup,” he was quoted as saying.

Al Zadjaly is crossing their his for the UAE’s show in the tournament as despite hosting the tournament they are the new entrants in continental futsal.

“We were lucky with the draw as we face Turkmenistan first and Kyrgyzstan the next day” he further said.

Apart from the two countries, UAE have Asean futsal powerhouse Thailand in the group and as they are hosting the Futsal World Cup, the Thais are rigourously preparing for the championship which would determine their chances on the world stage.

But Al Zadjaly knows the difficulties especially in having the Thais in the group: "Considering that we will win the first two matches, that leaves our encounter against Thailand a mere formality and we need to be at our best in the quarters to progress to the semis as well as in the World Cup.”

First-timers in the championship, UAE have been taking the tournament seriously as they had set up a training camp in Iran and recently participated in tournaments in Tunisia and Iran. The Paulo Edurado De Jesus Pinho’s side will play further friendlies against Qatar and Tajikistan before the curtain raiser against Turkmenistan on May 25.




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