Courtesy: UEFA.com

Feast of futsal planned for new year

Tuesday, 2 January 2007

by Paul Saffer

from London

Qualifying for the sixth UEFA European Futsal Championship gets started this month, the biggest edition yet of a competition set to climax with in a brand-new venue in Portugal.

January start
Porto's €15m Pavilhão Multiusos de Gondomar will be the main arena for the finals from 16-25 November, but before that 12 nations, including debutants Malta and Turkey, take part in three preliminary round mini-tournaments from 15-21 January. The group winners, plus the two best runners-up, then take on the 23 top nations in the qualifying round - with holders Spain and former winners Italy and Russia all involved in the second half of February.

Spain defence
Spain secured their third title in five competitions in Ostrava in February 2005, to add to their FIFA Futsal World Cup crown, which they had retained the previous year. Inevitably, they are the team to beat again, not least as they won eleven and drew one of their 12 friendlies last year, including a recent 4-1 defeat of Russia in the rematch of the last European final. Poland, F.Y.R Macedonia and one of the preliminary round runners-up will have a tough task denying Spain the qualifying place on offer from Group 3.

Italy run
Italy, keen to win back the title they won in 2003, are unbeaten since their semi-final loss to Russia in Ostrava and will be confident as hosts of Group 1. But Russia are on their travels in perhaps the most intriguing contest, as Hungary - who impressed in the Czech Republic on their finals debut - stage Group 7.

Expansion
But those who miss out this time know that in 2009 there will be four extra chances to make the finals, as the tournament expands to 12 teams. But the competition is expanding in different ways this time, according to UEFA futsal manager Laurent Morel. "The Futsal Championship has been integrated to the Eurotop Sponsorship programme, which confers a new dimension to this competition," Morel told uefa.com. "While Ostrava was a positive event where attendance and TV audience records were beaten, the Porto edition might be a fantastic breakthrough for the game. For the first time, UEFA divisions that usually deal with the top football competitions are now involved in the project."

New arrivals
Even more countries could be involved in the future too. Morel said: "The member associations are now aware of the growing demand for futsal in their country, and most of them have now initiated activities. There are some positive developments in Iceland, Estonia and Wales. We expect these countries to enter our competitions next season. The Finnish FA is also hosting a Nordic Futsal Seminar with Sweden, Norway and Denmark."

Developments
Morel, who identifies Romania and Turkey as fast-improving outsiders to watch in 2007, is also hoping to implement a new competition to join this championship and the club-based UEFA Futsal Cup. "We are still in the process of preparing an Under-21 or youth competition," he said. "The demand is there, but the aim is to have more than half of the associations participating. [Our current research] could lead to the creation of an official competition in the very near future."



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