Futsal Champions League elite round draw

The UEFA Futsal Champions League elite round draw split the 16 contenders progressing from the main round into four groups that will decide the knockout finalists.

The elite round will be played from 30 November to 5 December and the four group winners will progress to the finals. Scheduled for 28 or 29 April and 30 April or 1 May, the finals will be staged at a venue to be confirmed.

Elite round draw

Group A: Kairat Almaty (KAZ), ACCS Asnières Villeneuve 92 (FRA), Viten Orsha (BLR), Tyumen (RUS, hosts)

Group B: Sporting CP (POR, hosts), Sinara Ekaterinburg (RUS), Olmissum (CRO), Hovocubo (NED)

Group C: Barça (ESP), SK Plzeň (CZE, hosts), Halle-Gooik (BEL), Dobovec (SVN)

Group D: Benfica (POR, hosts), Levante (ESP), Haladás (HUN), Uragan Ivano-Frankivsk (UKR)

• Holders Sporting CP feature along with fellow former winners Barça (who Sporting beat in the 2021 final in Zadar), Kairat Almaty, Benfica and Sinara Ekaterinburg.
• Also involved are 2020/21 quarter-finalists Dobovec (who lost 2-0 to Barça in Zadar) and 2019/20 semi-finalists Tyumen.
• Haladás (the only survivors from the preliminary round), Levante and Plzeň are all in their debut campaigns.
• Hovocubo have also reached this stage for the first time. ACCS and Olmissum have not previously played in the elite round but both made the one-off knockout round of 16 on debut last season.
• Kairat keep up their record of competing in all 15 seasons that the elite round has been played (2006/07 to 2019/20, and 2021/22). They are in an unmatched 18th European campaign overall.
• Kairat are aiming to become the first team to compete in the finals for a tenth time; Barça and Sporting CP hope to earn ninth appearances (including the eight-team events of 2001/02 and 2020/21 but not the two-legged finals between 2002/03 and 2005/06).
• ACCS, Hovocubo, Plzeň, Uragan and Viten Orsha hope to be the first teams from their nations to reach the finals. Dobovec aim to be the first Slovenian club to make the final four.
• Kairat and Tyumen drew 3-3 in October's main round.
• Kairat beat VIten Orsha 5-3 in last season's round of 32 and 9-0 in the 2013/14 elite round.
• Barça beat Halle-Gooik 9-3 in the 2018/19 main round.
• Dobovec beat Halle-Gooik in the last two elite rounds: 3-1 in 2019/20 and 5-4 in 2018/19.

How the draw worked

• Teams were split into three seeding tiers based on main round results: Path A winners (position 1, four teams; Path A runners-up (position 2, four teams); and Path A third place and Path B group winners (positions 3 and 4, eight teams).
• No main round group winners should face the runners-up in their group.
• There was no country protection.
• Additionally, based on a decision taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, clubs from Ukraine and Russia cannot be drawn into the same group.
• Four clubs (Benfica, Sporting CP, Plzeň and Tyumen) were selected as mini-tournament hosts and drawn separately, from Pot 1, while maintaining their seedings.
• The teams in Pot 2 (positions 3 and 4) were drawn next, filling the remaining position 4 spots before filling position 3.
• Pots 3 (position 2) and 4 (position 1) were then drawn, filling the remaining available slots in the groups.

Seeding pots

Pot 1 (hosts)
Benfica (POR, seeding position 1), Sporting CP (POR, 1), SK Plzeň (CZE, 2), Tyumen (RUS, 4)

Pot 2 (seeding positions 3 & 4)
Halle-Gooik (BEL), Dobovec (SVN), Viten Orsha (BLR), Haladás (HUN), Uragan Ivano-Frankivsk (UKR), Olmissum (CRO), Hovocubo (NED)

Pot 3 (seeding position 2)
Sinara Ekaterinburg (RUS), ACCS Asnières Villeneuve 92 (FRA), Levante (ESP)

Pot 4 (seeding position 1)
Barça (ESP, 3), Kairat Almaty (KAZ, 4)

The following pairs of main round Path A winners & runners-up should not meet:
Group 1: Benfica & Sinara Ekaterinburg
Group 2: Sporting CP & ACCS Asnières Villeneuve 92
Group 3: Barça & Levante
Group 4: Kairat Almaty & Plzeň