Source: UEFA.com

Kairat Almaty will start their title defence at home in a group involving compatriots Tulpar Karagandy while FC Barcelona have a tough task after the elite round draw was made.

Holders Kairat Almaty will start their UEFA Futsal Cup title defence at home in a group containing compatriots Tulpar Karagandy after the elite round draw was made in Nyon.

The 12 teams that progressed from the six main round groups join the four highest-seeded clubs that were given byes – Kairat, former winners MFK Dinamo and FC Barcelona, and 2011 runners-up Sporting Clube de Portugal – in the four mini-tournaments between 19 and 24 November. Kairat will stage their section, up against the two preliminary round survivors MFK VitEn Vitebsk and KMF Tango Sarajevo plus Tulpar, who are making their European debut as league runners-up behind Almaty last season.

Barcelona, deposed as holders by Kairat in April, have a tough section hosted by Czech champions FK EP Chrudim and including City'US Târgu Mureş and Lokomotiv Kharkiv, who respectively provide the bulk of the Romanian and Ukrainian national squads. Dinamo have been assigned to Group B in Slovenia while Sporting stage Group D against Azerbaijan's Araz Naxçivan, Hungary's Győri ETO FC and CF Eindhoven.

The four elite round winners will progress to the knockout finals in late April, with the hosts picked from among their number at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Bilbao on 12 December.

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

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

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

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

*hosts





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