Futsal World Cup elite round and play-off draw

Elite round draw (27 January to 5 February)

Group A: Portugal (hosts), Italy, Belarus, Finland

Group B: Spain, Serbia (hosts), Ukraine, France

Group C: Russia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Croatia (hosts) 

Group D: Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Romania, Czech Republic (hosts)

• The four group winners will qualify for the finals in Lithuania from 12 September to 4 October.
• The four runners-up will go into the play-offs on 9 and 12 April for the remaining two UEFA berths.
• Finland and Belarus began in the preliminary round.
• Spain won the World Cup in 2000 and 2004, and reached three other finals, while being one of just three ever-present teams in the eight editions alongside fellow champions Brazil and Argentina.
• Italy (2004) and Russia (2016) have also been runners-up.
• Belarus, Finland, France, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are aiming to qualify for the first time; Finland and Slovakia have never been to a major tournament.

Play-off draw (9 & 12 April)

Runner-up Group C v Runner-up Group D
Runner-up Group B v Runner-up Group A

• The two play-off winners over two legs progress to the finals.
• Based on decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee, Russia and Ukraine may not play against each other in the play-offs. Upon completion of the elite round, should the prohibited clash occur, the away team of tie 1 will be swapped with the away team of tie 2.

Finals: 12 September–4 October 2020, Lithuania (Kaunas Arena, Vilnius Arena and Klaipėda Arena) 

Qualifying allocation

AFC 5
CAF 3
CONCACAF 4
CONMEBOL 4
OFC 1 (Solomon Islands)
UEFA 7 (hosts Lithuania and 6 qualifiers)

Elite round draw procedure

• The teams were drawn into four groups of four.
• The main round group winners were seeded according to their coefficient ranking with the top-four ranked teams assigned to position 1 in each group and the others to position 2.
• The main round runners-up werenot seeded and assigned to positions 3 and 4.
• There wereseven potential mini-tournament hosts, three seeded in position 1, one in position 2, three in position 4. They were split into three draw bowls accordingly.
• First a position (1, 2 or 4) was drawn, then a team from the appropriate bowl drawn and assigned to Group A according to their seeding.
• This procedure was repeated for the other three groups.
• Once the four hosts were drawn, the remaining three teams were reassigned to their appropriate draw pot.
• The remaining teams were drawn according to their seeding.
• Based on decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee, Russia and Ukraine cannot be drawn into the same group
• The elite round will be played between 27 January and 5 February.
• The four group winners will qualify for the finals in Lithuania from 12 September to 4 October.
• The four runners-up will go into the play-offs on 9 and 12 April for the remaining two UEFA berths.

Elite round draw pots

Hosts:
Bowl 1 (Position 4)
Croatia
Czech Republic
Ukraine

Bowl 2 (Position 2)
Serbia

Bowl 3 (Position 1)
Russia
Spain
Portugal

Pot 1 (Positions 3 & 4, non-drawn hosts will be added):
Belarus
Finland
France
Romania
Slovakia

Pot 2 (Position 2, non-drawn hosts will be added):
Azerbaijan
Italy
Slovenia

Pot 3 (Position 1, non-drawn hosts will be added):
Kazakhstan

Main round group winners: Spain (1), Slovenia (2), Azerbaijan (3), Italy (4), Kazakhstan (5), Serbia (6), Russia (7), Portugal (8)

Main round group runners-up: Finland (1), Ukraine (2), Slovakia (3), Belarus (4), Romania (5), France (6), Croatia (7), Czech Republic (8)

Draw facts

• Finland and Belarus began in the preliminary round.
• Spain won the World Cup in 2000 and 2004, and reached three other finals, while being one of just three ever-present teams in the eight editions alongside fellow champions Brazil and Argentina.
• Italy (2004) and Russia (2016) have also been runners-up.
• Belarus, Finland, France, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are aiming to qualify for the first time; Finland and Slovakia have never been to a major tournament.

Play-off draw procedure

The four elite-round runners-up were pre-drawn into two home-and-away ties to be played on 9 and 12 April for the remaing two berths in the finals.

Pot 4
Runner-up Group A
Runner-up Group B
Runner-up Group C
Runner-up Group D