Courtesy: The AFC.com


Asian club futsal evolving fast says Dato' Alex

Thursday, 26 January 2012

Kuala Lumpur: The presence of a qualifying competition for this year's edition of the fledgling AFC Futsal Club Championship is a key indicator in the increasing popularity of the indoor game in the continent AFC General Secretary Dato' Alex Soosay has remarked.

Dato' Alex was speaking during his opening address at the draw for the 11-team qualifying competition for the 2012 AFC Futsal Club Championship on Thursday, marking the first time that the volume of participants in the tournament has required the need for qualifiers.

"The AFC Futsal Club Championship has evolved into the one of the best and most competitive futsal competitions in Asia," he said.

"It is also increasing in popularity and I am certain we will see this popularity continue to rise at the third edition in Kuwait.

"For the first time we are seeing a draw for the qualifiers as 11 teams vie for four spots in the eight-team competition. And we are all very happy to see that six member associations are fielding representatives in the tournament for the first time which also reflects the increasing popularity of the event."

The qualifiers have been dived into two zones, the West/South-Central Zone - which features a five-team, round robin league format with the top two going through to the finals - and the ASEAN/East Zone, which sees six teams divided into two groups of three, with the top two sides meeting in the semi-finals with the winners claiming the other two tickets to the tournament proper.

The four qualifiers from the ASEAN/East Zone and the two from the West/South-Central Zone will join the league winners of the host nation as well as the national champions of Japan, Iran and Lebanon - whose club sides occupied the top three positions at the 2011 AFC Futsal Club Championship.

The West/South-Central Zone and the ASEAN/East Zone qualifiers will be hosted by Uzbekistan and Vietnam respectively and the AFC General Secretary expressed his belief the two futsal-loving nations will run top class events when the qualifying action takes place between March 19 and 24.

"We are also very happy with the selection of Vietnam and Uzbekistan as hosts by the AFC Futsal Committee and we are all confident of their ability to host the qualifying competition successfully," Dato' Alex concluded.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com