Courtesy: UEFA.com


Charleroi close for business

Thursday, 20 July 2006

Action 21 Charleroi, the 2005 champions of Europe, have pulled out of the 2006/07 UEFA Futsal Cup after going into liquidation.

Funding blow
The Belgian champions' chairman Paul Locicero announced the move last night after being unable to gain sufficient funding from the city council, having already lost a major sponsorship deal. He said: "We have looked at all options. We can no longer financially take care of the first team. If we continued we risk increasing the financial shortfall every month. We would not be able to respect our contracts."

Success
It is all a far cry from Charleroi's recent success. The club have won the Belgian title for the last seven seasons and have grown to become one of the world's top teams. They contested the first two UEFA Futsal Cup finals in 2002 and 2003, losing both times to Interviú Boomerang, but bounced back to make it third time lucky with their triumph in 2005. UEFA's administration will wait for confirmation from the Belgian Football Association before deciding on a possible replacement club for the 2006/07 UEFA Futsal Cup.



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