Entries finalised for 2014/15 UEFA Futsal Cup
Friday, June 27, 2014
Article summary
Holders FC Barcelona are among 49 clubs in the running this season and join Kairat Almaty, Araz Naxçivan and Sporting Clube de Portugal in getting elite round byes.
Article top media content
Article body
Holders FC Barcelona are among 49 clubs in the running for the 2014/15 UEFA Futsal Cup – and will be one of four teams excused from the draw, which will be streamed live on UEFA.com, for the preliminary and main rounds at 14.00CET on 3 July in Nyon.
Last April, Barcelona regained in Baku the title they previously won in 2012 and, as one of the top four seeds, get a bye to November's elite round, along with 2013 victors Kairat Almaty, last season's finals hosts Araz Naxçivan and 2011 runners-up Sporting Clube de Portugal. In total, 29 clubs (ranked 21–49) will start the competition in the preliminary round, with 16 more (ranked 5–20) entering for the main round.
The 29 teams beginning in the preliminary round, played from 26 to 31 August, will be drawn into five groups of four and three of three. Every group will contain one side each from the four seeding pots, ranked by coefficient, other than the three-team sections which will have one apiece from the top two tiers and one from either the third or the fourth tier.
Eight clubs, including six of the 13 newcomers starting in the preliminary round, have been pre-selected as mini-tournament hosts and will be drawn separately before being placed in their appropriate seeding position. Among the newcomers are Gibraltar Scorpions FC, the first ever Gibraltarian entrants in the competition.
For the main round, the winners of the eight preliminary round groups will be pre-drawn in the proceedings on 3 July together with the 16 teams entering at this stage. Among their number are the competition's sole ever-presents Iberia Star Tbilisi, the only three-time champions Inter FS, and ISK Dina Moskva, making their debut in this competition having won a previous unofficial European tournament three times when they were the dominant force in Russia in the 1990s and turn of the century.
As in the previous draw, sides will be allocated one of four seeding positions and six clubs, including Dina, have been designated as hosts and will be drawn separately. The main round will be contested from 30 September to 5 October and the top two in each of the six groups will join the four top seeds in the elite round draw on 17 October. The four elite round group winners, to be decided between 18 and 23 November, will compete in the final tournament in late April with the hosts picked from among them.
2014/15 entrants
*Debutants
Preliminary round
Pot 1 – hosts
MNK Alumnus Zagreb (CRO, seeding position 1)*
FC Grand Pro Varna (BUL, 1)
APOEL FC (CYP, 1)*
MNK Centar Sarajevo (BIH, 2)*
Record Bielsko-Byala (POL, 2)*
Eden Futsal (IRL, 2)
FSC Schwaz (AUT, 3)*
FC Agama Podgorica (MNE, 3)*
Pot 2 – seeding position 4
FC Talgrig Yerevan (ARM)
KF Flamurtari Vlorë (ALB)
FK Lokomotyvas Radviliškis (LTU)*
Wrexham Futsal Club (WAL)
Gibraltar Scorpions FC (GIB)*
Pot 3 – seeding position 3
FC Anzhi Tallin (EST)
Istanbul Üniversitesi SK (TUR)
FC Progress Chisinau (MDA)*
Malmö City FC (SWE)*
Perth Saltires (SCO)
Balzan FC (MLT)
Pot 4 – seeding position 2
Asa Ben Gurion (ISR)
København Futsal (DEN)
Uni Futsal Bulle (SUI)
FC Encamp (AND)
NAFI Stuttgart (GER)*
Pot 5 – seeding position 1
Baku United FC (ENG)
FC Stalitsa Minsk (BLR)*
KMF Zelezarec Skopje (MKD)
FS Ilves Tampere (FIN)
Hovocubo (NED)*
Main round
Pot 6 – hosts
KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac (SRB, 1)
ISK Dina Moskva (RUS, 1)*
FK EP Chrudim (CZE, 1)
FK Nikars Riga (LVA, 2)
MVFC Berettjóújfalu (HUN, 2)
KMN Kobarid (SVN, 3)
Pot 7 – seeding position 4
Preliminary round winners Groups A to H
The last two of the eight to be drawn will be placed in seeding position 3 of first available groups
Pot 8 – seeding position 3
Vegakameratene (NOR)
Athina'90 (GRE)
FC Deva (ROU)*
Pot 9 – seeding position 2
Luparense C/5 (ITA)
FC Lokomotiv Kharkiv (UKR)
Futsal Team Charleroi (BEL)
Sporting Club de Paris (FRA)
Pot 10 – seeding position 1
Inter FS (ESP)
Iberia Star Tbilisi (GEO)
Slov-Matic Bratislava (SVK)
Bye to elite round
FC Barcelona (ESP, holders)
Kairat Almaty (KAZ)
Araz Naxçivan (AZE)
Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)