AFC Futsal draw to be conducted in Malaysia

THE draw for the West Asia qualifying tournament for next year's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Futsal Championship will be held on July 22 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, it was announced yesterday.

Bahrain are one of seven teams set to compete in the tournament, which will be held in Doha in October. It will mark the kingdom's international debut in futsal.

The competition feature four ranked nations in the sport and three unranked teams - one of them being the Bahrainis. Lebanon are the favourites. They are currently classified as the top team in the West Asian region and eighth overall in the AFC.

Iraq (14th), Kuwait (16th) and hosts Qatar (19th) are the other ranked teams. Jordan and Saudi Arabia join Bahrain as those without ranking.

Qualification

Apart from the West Asian event, qualifying tournaments will also be taking place in the Asean and East Asian regions.

The Asean teams, which will be divided into two groups, are Australia (ranked fifth), Malaysia (10th), Indonesia (11th), Vietnam (18th), Brunei (21st), Cambodia (NA), Myanmar (NA) and Philippines (NA).

The East Asian squads are Japan (third), China (fourth), Korea Republic (13th), Chinese Taipei (15th), Macau (17th), Hong Kong (NA) and Guam (NA).

The top three teams from each of the four qualification groups will advance to the AFC Futsal Championship, along with four nations who have already pre-qualified.

The squads that are already in are Iran, Thailand, Japan, and the host Uzbekistan. Iran, Thailand and Japan are in based on their top three rankings in the 2008 tournament, while Uzbekistan qualify automatically as hosts.

Bahrain's national futsal team, coached by Brazilian Gustavo Zloccowick, are scheduled to begin their daily training programme soon. Zloccowick has named a preliminary training pool of 35 players.