Courtesy: www.uefa.com

Futsal's finest gather again
Monday, 06 October 2003
The UEFA Futsal Cup first qualifying round starts this week with matches being played across Europe.

Third time lucky
This is the third staging of the club competition for the best teams from across the continent. The 32 hopefuls have been divided into eight mini-tournaments of four sides, with one of the teams in each section acting as the host.

Prato start
The first to get under way is Group 4 which features Prato C/5 of Italy, SK Program Dubnica nad Vahom of Slovakia, FC Ammk Baku of Azerbaijan and Latvian hosts FK Oma. Each of the mini-tournaments features three matchdays with the sides playing each other once on a round-robin basis.

Tough task
Among the other groups to look out for are Group 1 which features defending champions Playas de Castellón F.S. of Spain, while two-time finalists Action 21 Charleroi of Belgium are competing in Group 6. This year's event is expected to be the toughest ever, with a number of sides in with a chance of lifting the trophy next spring.

Full coverage
Check on uefa.com for regular score and table updates, while there will be a full report on each mini-tournament once the matches are completed.