Courtesy: UEFA.com

Champions compete for Porto prize

Wednesday, 7 September 2005

Portugal will cement its status as one of Europe's leading Futsal nations with the second staging of the City of Porto international Futsal tournament featuring reigning UEFA Futsal Cup holders Action 21 Charleroi.

Extra spice
The Belgian champions will take on Portuguese counterparts SL Benfica, also the 2004 European finalists, Sporting Clube de Portugal, AR Freixieiro and Boavista FC, along with Italian side AS Roma over the coming four days. To add extra spice, the matches on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be played in the city's impressive Rosa Mota sports hall.

Tenth anniversary
The 4,640-seater venue will also be home to the next UEFA European Futsal Championship, to be staged at the end of 2007. This week's tournament marks the tenth anniversary of the Portuguese Football Federation incorporating Futsal into its structure.

City promotion
In announcing the round-robin event, Porto organisers said: "The city of Porto is connected with the birth of Futsal in Portugal. Besides the sporting competition, the tournament will help to promote the city at home and abroad."

High praise
Commenting on Portugal's "pro-active" attitude towards Futsal, Laurent Morel, UEFA's Futsal manager, said: "Futsal in the Porto region is very well established and the Portuguese people demonstrated with UEFA EURO 2004™ that they were very good at organising large-scale sporting events.

'Useful rehearsal'
"These are some of the numerous arguments that UEFA took into account when choosing Porto as host city for the next European Futsal Championship in December 2007. No doubt the organisation of a great international Futsal tournament like the one this week - held moreover in the glamorous Rosa Mota Hall - will serve as a useful rehearsal."



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