Courtesy: FIFA.com


Excitement builds for Final Draw

Wednesday 9 July 2008

The 20 participating nations at the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2008 will get a taste of things to come this Thursday, 10 July, when the city of Brasilia hosts the Final Draw at 12:00 local time. The ceremony will take place at the Ulysses Guimaraes Convention Centre and involve the participation of Brazil's Minister for Sport, Orlando Silva, and FIFA Director of Competitions, Jim Brown, among other officials. Also in attendance will be some of the futsal's most esteemed figures, including the Brazilians Manoel Tobias, voted Player of the Tournament at Spain 1996 and Guatemala 2000, and Jorginho, winner of that award at Hong Kong 1992.

As well as allocating the 20 qualifiers their respective groups, the event in the Brazilian capital will also see the tournament's official poster and mascot unveiled to the public. "The country is already moving to the World Cup beat, and that gives us a lot of motivation," says Seleção star Falcao, voted top player at the last edition in Chinese Taipei 2004, this despite Brazil only finishing third.

During the first phase of the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2008, the teams will battle it out for supremacy in four groups of five. The top two from each section will advance to a second group phase, which will ultimately decide the four semi-finalists. After winning the first three editions of the event, Brazil will be hoping their passionate home support can help them wrest the title back from two-time champions Spain, who eliminated the Canarinhos in 2000 and 2004. "Losing at the last two World Cups was a major blow," admits Falcao. "Now, we're committed to winning back the world crown, and if we could do it in front of our fans, it would be very special," he adds.

The sixth edition of the sport's showpiece event will take place in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia between 30 September and 19 October 2008. For the first time in its history there will be 20 teams taking part instead of the usual 16. The competing nations are as follows: Brazil (hosts); Spain, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Russia and Ukraine (Europe); Egypt and Libya (Africa); Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (South America); China PR, Iran, Japan and Thailand (Asia); Cuba, the USA and Guatemala (North, Central America and Caribbean) and Solomon Islands (Oceania).




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