Flying the flag for UEFA

Global event
Petr Fousek, the UEFA Futsal Committee chairman, spoke to uefa.com about his ambitions for the tournament, which will see the cream of world Futsal gathering in Asia. Sixteen nations are taking part, but Mr Fousek believed Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Portugal and Czech Republic would fly the flag for UEFA with distinction.

Medal hopes
"I have high expectations from the European participants in Chinese Taipei," he said. "The five qualifiers from our continent are absolutely of the highest quality and I am sure Europe will fight for the medals again."

Quality increasing
Mr Fousek pointed out that Spain were the defending world champions and that the other four European entrants were all highly regarded. He said: "We should not forget that many European countries did not qualify because Europe has only five slots. It will be difficult, of course, because the quality of Futsal is also growing in other confederations."

Czech finals
Mr Fousek added: "For those who are not successful, and for those who didn't qualify, we will have another European challenge soon when the UEFA European Futsal Championship finals take place in the Czech Republic next February."