New names in action as Futsal Cup begins
Monday, August 17, 2009
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The 2009/10 UEFA Futsal Cup season begins on Monday when a week of Preliminary round fixtures commence with 27 sides competing for seven places alongside some big names in the second stage.
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The 2009/10 UEFA Futsal Cup season begins on Monday when a week of Preliminary round fixtures commence.
New nations
Twenty-seven sides are competing in seven one-venue mini-tournaments from which the winners will progress to the Main round in late September and early October where 2005 champions Action 21 Charleroi and the runners-up the year before, SL Benfica, lie in wait. Among those in the Preliminary round are Gazi Üniversitesi, the first entrants from Turkey, and maiden Norwegian representatives, Nidaros Futsal, who take on Slovakia's RCS Košice in the opening fixture on Monday in Cyprus.
Finals chance
As in previous years, the winners and runners-up from the Main round groups – which have already been drawn – will advance to the Elite round draw on 13 October. There, they will join the four seeds given a bye to that stage: holders Interviú Madrid, 2008 winners MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg, that season's runners-up ElPozo Murcia FS and AFC Kairat Almaty, semi-finalists for three of the last four years. Four Elite round mini-tournaments will be played from 14 to 22 November, with the group winners competing in the finals, hosted by one of the qualifiers in late April.
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