Champions enter as elite round starts

The four UEFA Futsal Cup finalists will be decided over the next week as the elite round is played with holders Kairat Almaty and former champions FC Barcelona and MFK Dinamo entering.

All 12 teams that progressed from the six main round groups join the four highest-seeded clubs who were given byes – Kairat, Dinamo, Barcelona and 2011 runners-up Sporting Clube de Portugal – in the four mini-tournaments that will each produce one side for the finals in late April. Barcelona, deposed as holders by Kairat in April, kick off the action on Wednesday against Lokomotiv Kharkiv in Group A, after which Czech hosts FK EP Chrudim play Romania's City'US Târgu Mureş.

Also on Wednesday, Dinamo – runners-up for the last two years – start in Group B against Slov-Matic Bratislava in Slovenia, where home team FC Litija take on Serbia's KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac. Both these groups continue on Thursday and end on Saturday, while the other mini-tournaments run a day later.

That includes Group C, staged by Kairat, who are up against Kazakhstani compatriots Tulpar Karagandy, but first face KMF Tango Sarajevo and Belarusian side MFK VitEn Vitebsk, the only two survivors from the initial preliminary round. Group D is held by Sporting, who tackle Hungary's Győri ETO FC, CF Eindhoven and Azerbaijan's former semi-finalists Araz Naxçivan

The hosts for the knockout finals in April will be picked from the four qualifiers at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Bilbao on 12 December.

Elite round
Group A (20–23 November): FC Barcelona (ESP), FK EP Chrudim (CZE)*, City'US Târgu Mureş (ROU), Lokomotiv Kharkiv (UKR)

Group B (20–23 November): MFK Dinamo (RUS), KMF Ekonomac Kragujevac (SRB), Slov-Matic Bratislava (SVK), FC Litija (SVN)*

Group C (21–24 November): Kairat Almaty (KAZ, holders)*, MFK VitEn Vitebsk (BLR), Tulpar Karagandy (KAZ), KMF Tango Sarajevo (BIH)

Group D (21–24 November):Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)*, Győri ETO FC (HUN), Araz Naxçivan (AZE), CF Eindhoven (NED)

*hosts