History
Saturday 1 December 2007
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UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament logo (©UEFA)
FIFA introduced Futsal as a new discipline in 1988 and Brazil were crowned as the first FIFA Futsal World Cup winners in January 1989. Futsal was rapidly gaining popularity in Europe and the number of Futsal-playing countries increased considerably during the 1990s.
First steps
This enthusiasm in Europe was reflected on the pitch and UEFA staged its first European Futsal tournament in Córdoba, Spain, in January 1996. It was won by the hosts in some style and, after three European teams had reached the semi-finals of the World Cup staged later that year, UEFA's Executive Committee decided, in April 1997, to introduce a full-scale UEFA European Futsal Championship. Russia won the first competition in 1999, followed by Spain (2001, 2005 and 2007) and Italy (2003 as hosts).
Russia joy
By then the UEFA Futsal Cup for clubs had been introduced, beginning in 2001/02 and held annually ever since with an increasing number of entries and a showpiece final four climax inaugurated in 2006/07. The growth of the sport and requests from associations has now led to the introduction of the first UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament. Twenty-nine nations entered, with Russia picked to host the finals from 8-14 December 2008 in St. Petersburg and Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Slovenia, Croatia, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan qualifying. Russia were to win a thrilling final against Italy 5-4 after extra time.
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