EGYPT TEAM TO BEAT AS AFRICA'S FUTSAL QUALIFIERS BEGIN

Courtesy: cafonline.com

African Indoor champions Egypt will be the favourites to fly Africa's lone flag in this year's FIFA Futsal World Championship, 22 November to 12 December, in Chinese Taipei when the preliminary rounds of the qualifying series get underway from 2 July across the continent.

Six teams have entered for the qualifying tournament - Egypt, Cameroon, Mozambique, Morocco, South Africa and Guinea Bissau.

Egypt won the first five-a-side African championship in 1996 when they edged out Ghana to second place.
They successfully defended their title four years later when they stopped Morocco 3-2 in the final.

Incidentally, they also clinched the 1998 1st Arab Futsal Championship after outscoring Morocco 8-4 in extra-time after the game was tied at 4-4 in regulation time.

Egypt improved on their 12th placing at the 1996 World Championship by placing sixth at the 2000 edition of the competition.

The Egyptians pulled out of hosting the African zone of a Futsal qualifying tournament in June, citing financial difficulties and as a result the African qualifiers will now be played on home and away basis with the final to be decided not later than 19 September.

Egypt will kick off their campaign against South Africa at home with the return leg match fixed for two weeks later.

At the 2nd African Futsal Championship four years ago, Egypt trounced their South African opponents 18-2 with Samir Sabry and Adel Fathi both grabbing a hat-trick.

Morocco is also highly rated in indoor soccer courtesy of their international exposure while the likes of Cameroon and Guinea Bissau are making their first ever appearance at this stage of the game.

The FIFA Futsal World Championship will take place in Chinese Taipei from 22 November to 12 December this year.

Among the countries who have already qualified for the final tournament are defending champions Spain, three-time winners Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Czech, Ukraine.

Asia will be represented by as many as four countries - hosts Chinese Taipei, champions Iran, Thailand and Japan.

The first edition of the FIFA World Indoor Championship was staged in 1989 in the Netherlands.
Hong Kong hosted the event in 1992, Spain in 1996 and Guatemala in 2000.

It is hoped that indoor soccer will make its long-awaited debut at the 2008 Olympics in China.