Futsal Cup draw date, Arveladze role confirmed

The UEFA Futsal Cup semi-final draw will be held in Tbilisi on Wednesday 27 March – and former Georgian internationals Shota and Archil Arveladze have been announced as tournament ambassadors.

Hosts Iberia Star Tbilisi will be joined by holders FC Barcelona, regular semi-finalists Kairat Almaty and 2007 winners MFK Dinamo of Russia in the event at the Tbilisi Sport Palace from 26 to 28 April. On the first of those dates the semi-finals will be played, and these ties will be set in the draw ceremony starting from 19.00 local time (16.00CET) on 27 March at the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel in Tbilisi.

Helping promote the tournament the following month will be the Arveladze twins, two of the most famous names in the Georgian game. Forward Shota scored 26 times in 61 international appearances and his career took him from FC Dinamo Tbilisi to Trabzonspor AŞ, AFC Ajax, Rangers FC, AZ Alkmaar and Levante UD, winning domestic doubles in Georgia, the Netherlands and Scotland. His career goal tally of 291 is a Georgian record and he has also coached at AZ and in Turkey.

Archil, capped 32 times as a striker, also began his career at Dinamo and moved on to Trabzonspor, before playing for NAC Breda, 1. FC Köln and FC Lokomotivi Tbilisi. His achievements came despite a serious injury suffered when he was 17.