Courtesy: UEFA.com

Futsal draw paves road to Porto

Monday, 2 October 2006

by Paul Saffer

Holders Spain will welcome Poland and F.Y.R. Macedonia to Madrid in February after the 2007 UEFA European Futsal Championship preliminary and qualifying round draws were made by UEFA Futsal Committee chairman Petr Fousek and UEFA Head of National Team Competitions Mikael Salzer in Nyon, with a record 36 teams entering the competition.

Former winners
Spain are one of 23 top seeds placed straight into the qualifying round and will host Group 3, which will also contain one of the best runners-up from January's preliminary round. Russia, beaten in the 2005 final in Ostrava, will travel to Hungary - who also qualified for last year's final tournament - in Group 6 to play the hosts, Greece and Lithuania, while the only other team apart from that pair to take the title, Italy, stage Group 1 in Martina Franca. The Italians will face Belarus, France and the winners of preliminary round Group A.

Maltese bow
The five remaining places in the second stage will be filled when the three preliminary round groups take place. Malta, making their bow in the tournament, will stage Group C and face Georgia, Cyprus and Kazakhstan, while the other debutants Turkey meet Albania, Armenia and hosts Finland in Group A. Group B in Romania also involves Latvia, England and Bulgaria

Competition format
The winners of each preliminary round group, plus the two best runners-up, progress to the qualifying round, where the seven first-placed teams will join hosts Portugal in Porto for the finals from 16-25 November.



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