August 19 – The preliminary round of the UEFA Futsal Cup for clubs completes this weekend with 32 teams battling for 8 places in the Main round of 24. The 2016/17 championship has seen a record entry of 52 clubs including for the first time teams from Kosovo and San Marino,
This is the 16th edition of the UEFA Futsal Cup which has been dominated by Spanish teams who have won the championship seven time: Inter (three times), Barcelona (twice), Castellon (twice).
Russian teams have won three times including current holders Ugra Yugorsk who were first time entrants to the competition beating Inter 4-3 in the finals hosted by Inter in Guadalajara. Portugal’s Benfica took bronze, beating Italy’s Pescara in the play-off.
The preliminary round is made up of clubs from the lower ranked Futsal nations and this year are played in eight four-team groups.
The preliminary round group winners join all but the four highest-ranked teams. They are drawn into six groups of four which, like the Preliminary round, are staged as one-venue mini-tournaments. The Main round is played in October.
The top two teams in each group from the Main round qualify for the Elite round where they join the four seeded teams (Ugra Yugorsk and FC Dynamo (Russia), Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan), and Spain’s Inter FS) and are drawn into four groups of four. These groups will be played in November with the winners progressing to the finals.
The four-team finals will be played at the end of April 2017 and hosted by one of the qualifiers. The tournament is played as a knockout with the semi-finals followed two days later by the final and third-place play-off.
Preliminary Round groups:
Group A
APOEL Nicosia (CYP), JB Futsal Gentofte (DEN), ASUE Yerevan (ARM)*, AFM Futsal Maniacs (SUI)
Group B
Athina ’90 (GRE), Blue Magic FC Dublin (IRL), Military Futsal Team (MNE)*, Tre Fiori (SMR)
Group C
Hamburg Panthers (GER), Sandefjord (NOR), Classic Chisinau (MDA)*, Cardiff University Futsal Club (WAL)
Group D
Centar Sarajevo (BIH), Istanbul Üniversity SK (TUR), Lynx FC (GIB), FC Baltija (LTU)*
Group E
Amsterdam SV (NED), IFK Göteberg (SWE), SC Kaiserebersdorf (AUT)*, FC Cosmos (EST)
Group F
Sievi Futsal (FIN)*, Tbilisi State University (GEO), Valletta FC (MLT), Wattcell Futsal Club (SCO)
Group G
Brezje Maribor (SVN)*, Zduńska Wola (POL), KF Tirana (ALB), FC Munsbach (LUX)
Group H
Oxford City Lions (ENG), FC Encamp (AND)*, ASA Tel-Aviv (ISR), FC Feniks (KOS)
*Hosts
Current group standings can be seen at http://www.uefa.com/futsalcup/season=2017/standings/index.html
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