
The Azerbaijani futsal national team will play its next match in
the main stage of the UEFA European Futsal Championship on January
31, Azernews reports.
The team, which is in Group 5, will face the Croatian national
team. The match will take place at the Mate Parlov Sports Center in
Pula at 22:15 (Baku time).
Recall that Azerbaijani futsal team drew 3:3 with Sweden in its
first match in the main stage.
The UEFA European Futsal Championship is the main futsal
competition of the men’s national futsal teams governed by UEFA
(the Union of European Football Associations)
The first tournament was held in Spain in 1996 and featured only
six teams. The tournament was expanded to eight teams in 1999 and
held every two years, and further to 12 teams in 2010.
After 2018, the tournament was expanded to 16 teams and held
every four years, to avoid leap years when the FIFA Futsal World
Cup is being played. The first 16-team tournament was held in 2022
in the Netherlands.
Notably, futsal is a ball sport played on a hard court, smaller
than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to
five-a-side football.
The game is played between two teams of five players each, one
of whom is the goalkeeper. Unlike some other forms of indoor
football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by
lines; walls or boards are not used.
Azerbaijan had qualified for the FIFA Futsal World Cup for the
first time in 2016.
Now the futsal team successfully represents Azerbaijan at
multiple international futsal competitions such as the FIFA Futsal
World Cup and the European Championships.
The team was ranked 14th in the world, the highest-ranking team
from Caucasus in the World Rankings.