Futsal EURO 2022: format, calendar
A new home-and-away qualifying group stage is among the changes leading to the first 16-team final tournament.
UEFA Futsal EURO 2022 is the first edition since the switch from the biennial 12-team tournament to a 16-nation finals held every four years, and there are big changes to qualifying too.
Qualifying format
Qualifying will consist of four stages: qualifying round (mini-tournaments), qualifying round play-offs (home and away), qualifying group stage (home and away) and play-offs (home and away).
- Hosts Netherlands enter in final tournament
- The teams competing in the 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup elite round will enter in the qualifying group stage: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine
- All other entrants start in the qualifying round
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Qualifying round (29 January–1 February 2020)
- The teams will be drawn into nine groups of three or four teams, played as mini-tournaments
- Group winners progress directly to the qualifying group stage
- The nine runners-up and five best third-placed teams (not counting results against fourth-placed teams if the round is a mixture of three and four-team groups) enter the qualifying play-offs
Qualifying round play-offs (April 2020)
- The 14 entrants are drawn into seven ties, to be played home and away (seven of the nine runners-up will play the second leg at home, no team can face a nation they met in the qualifying round)
- The winners of the ties will complete the qualifying group stage line-up
Qualifying group stage (February, April & September 2021)
- The 32 teams (16 World Cup elite round contenders, nine qualifying round group winners and seven qualifying round play-off winners) are drawn into eight groups of four
- For the first time, this round will be played home and away, with every team meeting twice
- The eight group winners and six best runners-up join the Netherlands in the finals, with the remaining two runners-up entering the play-offs
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Play-offs (October 2021)
- The two runners-up who do not progress from the qualifying group stage will meet home and away, with a draw to determine the order of ties. The winners will join the other 15 contenders in the finals
Final tournament (19 January–6 February 2022, Netherlands)
- The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four, with the top two from each progressing to the quarter-finals
Knockout system:
Quarter-final 1: Winner Group B v Runner-up Group A
Quarter-final 2: Winner Group A v Runner-up Group B
Quarter-final 3: Winner Group C v Runner-up Group D
Quarter-final 4: Winner Group D v Runner-up Group C
Semi-final 1: Winner quarter-final 2 v Winner quarter-final 4
Semi-final 2: Winner quarter-final 1 v Winner quarter-final 3
Third-place match: Loser semi-final 1 v Loser semi-final 2
Final: Winner semi-final 1 v Winner semi-final 2
Competition calendar
Host appointment: 24 September 2019, Ljubljana
Qualifying round draw: 7 November 2019, Nyon
Qualifying round: 29 January–1 February 2020
Qualifying round play-off draw: 13 February 2020, Nyon
Qualifying round play-offs: April 2020
Qualifying group stage draw: 14 May 2020, Nyon
Qualifying group stage matchdays 1 & 2: February 2021
Qualifying group stage matchdays 3 & 4: April 2021
Qualifying group stage matchdays 5 & 6: September 2021
Play-off draw: September 2021, Nyon
Play-offs: October 2021
Final tournament draw: late 2021, tbc
Final tournament: 19 January–6 February 2022, Netherlands