UEFA Futsal Euro 2026 qualifying
Tournament details
Dates8 January 2024 – 24 September 2025
Teams48 (from 1 confederation)

The UEFA Futsal Euro 2026 qualifying competition will be a men's futsal competition that determines the 14 teams joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Latvia and Lithuania in the UEFA Futsal Euro 2026 final tournament,[1] which will be played on a four-year basis and featuring 16 teams.[2]

48 UEFA member national teams entered the competition. Apart from co-hosts Latvia and Lithuania, the remaining 46 teams entered the qualifying competition. The 34 teams with the highest futsal men's national-team coefficient ranking taken in December 2023 were given byes to the main round, while the remaining 12 teams entered in the preliminary round.[3]

Overview

The qualifying matches are played on dates that fall within the FIFA Futsal International Match Calendar.[4]

Schedule for UEFA Futsal Euro 2026 qualifying
Round Draw Dates
Preliminary round 25 January 2024 8 – 17 April 2024
Main round 12 July 2024
  • 9 – 18 December 2024,
  • 27 January – 5 February 2025,
  • 3 – 12 March 2025,
  • 7 – 16 April 2025
Play-offs 15 May 2025 15–24 September 2025

Preliminary round

Draw

The draw for the preliminary round will take place at 14:00 CET, 25 January 2024. The seeding will be based on the new Elo-based futsal men's national-team coefficient ranking taken in December 2023. The 12 teams will be drawn into 3 groups of four.[3]

All matches within each group are hosted by one of the participating associations. Each team plays each of the other teams in the group once. The top two in each group progress to the main round.[4]

Teams entering in the preliminary round are: Israel, Cyprus, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Andorra, Malta, Gibraltar, Austria, Estonia, San Marino, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.[3]

In the preliminary round, the schedule of each group is as follows:[4]

Preliminary round schedule
Day Schedule
Day 1 Arrival
Day 2 2 v 4, 3 v 1
Day 3 3 v 2, 1 v 4
Day 4 Rest day
Day 5 4 v 3, 1 v 2
Day 6 Departure

When establishing the match schedule, the host association is placed in position 1, and the visiting teams in positions 2, 3 and 4, according to their coefficient rankings.[4]

Main round

Draw

The draw for the main round will take place on 12 July 2024. The seeding will be based on the new Elo-based futsal men's national-team coefficient ranking. The 40 teams will be drawn into 10 groups of four. Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina can not be drawn in the same group. Each team plays one home and one away match against each other team in its group.[3]

The ten group winners qualify for the UEFA Futsal EURO 2026, while the eight best runners-up qualify for the play-offs.[4]

The 34 entering directly in main round are: Portugal (holders), Spain, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, France, Finland, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Georgia, Netherlands, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia, Belgium, Belarus, Moldova, Germany, North Macedonia, Sweden, Montenegro, Kosovo, England, Denmark, Albania, Norway, Greece, and Turkey.[3]

In the main round, the schedule of each group is as follows:[4]

Main round schedule
Matchday Matches
Matchday 1 2 v 3, 4 v 1
Matchday 2 1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 3 3 v 1, 2 v 4
Matchday 4 1 v 3, 4 v 2
Matchday 5 3 v 2, 1 v 4
Matchday 6 2 v 1, 4 v 3

Play-offs

Draw

The draw for the main round will take place on 15 May 2025. The eight teams are drawn into four ties, played over two legs, to decide the last four qualifiers.[3][4]

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualify for the final tournament.[3]

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in Futsal Euro1
 LatviaCo-host2 December 20230 (Debut)
 LithuaniaCo-host2 December 20230 (Debut)

References

  1. ↑ "Latvia and Lithuania selected to host Futsal EURO 2026". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2023.
  2. ↑ "UEFA to revamp and expand futsal competitions". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 4 April 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Futsal EURO 2026: format, calendar". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "UEFA Documents". documents.uefa.com. 1 October 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
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