Courtesy: http://nationmultimedia.com

Futsal invite for Thailand

Published on Apr 27, 2004

Thailand's national futsal team will compete in the US$150,000 (Bt6 million) Kuala Lumpur World Fives Invitational Futsal Tournament at the Putra Stadium from June 1-6.

After earning the last spot in the Fifa Futsal Championship in Taiwan in November- December, the reigning Asean futsal champions were invited to join the 12 elite futsal teams for the KL World Fives, the indoor five-a-side game.

The KL World Fives, presented by ESPN Star Sports, and Malaysia's Ministry of Youth and Sports, is the most prestigious international futsal competition in Asia. Making up the Asian challenge in the world's richest futsal tournament is Iran, Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand and hosts Malaysia.

World futsal champions Spain, former European champions Italy, defending champions Argentina, last year's runner-up Brazil and two top flight European teams, Czech Republic and the Netherlands, complete the cast of 12 nations, which will be split into four
groups.

Team manager Adisak Benjasiriwan sees this tournament as a warm-up for the Thai team before the world tournament in November.

"We have to learn more and more from this tournament as there are many great teams throughout the world participating," he said.