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Castellón take first futsal crown

Many unofficial continental club competitions had existed before the first UEFA Futsal Cup was played in 2001/02. Spain's Playas de Castellón FS won the last unofficial competition in 2001, and repeated the trick in the new UEFA event a year later.

Castellón take first futsal crown
Castellón take first futsal crown ©UEFA.com

Many unofficial continental club competitions had existed before the first UEFA Futsal Cup was played in 2001/02, with the first format aping that of the then still-new UEFA European Futsal Championship, with an eight-team final tournament. Spain's Playas de Castellón FS won the last unofficial champion clubs' competition in 2001, and repeated the trick in the new UEFA event a year later.

Action 21 Charleroi, immediately one of the forces in the new competition, won the first fixtures 7-3 against Czech side Pramen Havlickuv Brod, Pedro Henrique scoring the competition's opening goal. Charleroi, like AS Roma, MNK Split, Clearex Chorzów, Sporting Clube de Portugal, and Castellón, qualified with a perfect record to be joined by Bosnia-Herzegovina's MNK Kaskada Gracanica and Hungary's Cső-Montage Budapest FC in the finals, played in February 2002 in Lisbon.

Hosts Sporting made a good start to Group A, beating Kaskada 3-1 as Split overcame Roma 2-0. The Italian champions bounced back with a 10-2 victory against Kaskada, followed by a goalless draw between Split and Sporting. The hosts now needed a point against Roma and despite twice falling behind in the last three minutes, Zézito equalised each time to secure a 5-5 draw and second place as Split beat Kaskada 6-2.

Group B was more clear cut as Charleroi and Castellón secured progress after two matchdays; the Belgian side beating Cső-Montage 7-5 and Chorzów 3-2 while the Spanish club overcame those teams 7-1 and 9-0. Castellón then beat Charleroi 3-1 for first place while Cső-Montage had the consolation of a 6-1 win against Poland's representatives.

Castellón kept up their winning run in the semi-finals, defeating Sporting 4-0, as Charleroi recovered from briefly trailing Split 2-1 to win 7-3. However, although Javier Lorente's opener for Castellón in the final was cancelled out by Lúcio Rosa before the break, Charleroi had no answer to two goals from Javi Rodríguez either side of Joan and Julio efforts as the Spanish side took the trophy with a 5-1 win.