{"id":392117,"date":"2026-04-14T20:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/392117\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T20:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:23:07","slug":"2028-futsal-world-cup-preliminary-round-twelve-teams-advance-futsal-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/392117\/","title":{"rendered":"2028 Futsal World Cup preliminary round: Twelve teams advance | Futsal World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

European qualifying for the 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup<\/a> has begun with the preliminary round.<\/p>\n

Two of the UEFA Futsal EURO 2026<\/a> co-hosts, Latvia and Lithuania, are among the teams through to the main round group phase, along with Albania, Andorra, Denmark, Estonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Norway and Sweden. <\/p>\n

Neither Estonia nor Northern Ireland had previously got through a round in a UEFA or FIFA futsal tournament. In their crucial 7-5 defeat of England, Northern Ireland also recorded their first-ever competitive win. Andorra have also got through a round of Futsal World Cup qualifying for the first time.<\/p>\n

While the 24 top-ranked entrants in the Men’s Futsal National Team Coefficients<\/a> start their campaigns in the main round group phase, the other 24 teams began the competition in the preliminary round. They competed in six one-venue, four-team mini-tournaments, and the top two sides in each group advanced to the main round group phase.<\/p>\n

Those 12 teams progressing join the direct main round entrants, among them the other 14 nations that competed at Futsal EURO 2026, including winners Spain. The draw for the main round group phase takes place at 12:00 CET on Friday 19 June.<\/p>\n

Preliminary round resultsPreliminary round groups<\/a><\/p>\n

Group A
Through to main round: Andorra, Denmark (hosts)
Also in group: Malta, Scotland<\/p>\n

Group B
Through to main round: Sweden, Northern Ireland
Also in group: England (hosts), Switzerland<\/p>\n

Group C
Through to main round: North Macedonia, Lithuania (hosts)
Also in group: T\u00fcrkiye, Bulgaria<\/p>\n

Group D
Through to main round: Kosovo, Montenegro (hosts)
Also in group: Austria, Gibraltar<\/p>\n

Group E
Through to main round: Latvia, Albania (hosts)
Also in group: Cyprus, San Marino<\/p>\n

Group F
Through to main round: Norway, Estonia\ufeff\u00a0(hosts)
Also in group: Israel, Greece<\/p>\n

Which teams enter in the main round?<\/p>\n

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine<\/p>\n

UEFA qualifying calendar for 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup<\/p>\n

Preliminary round draw: 12 December 2025
Preliminary round: 7\u201314 April 2026
Main round group phase draw: 19 June 2026
Main round group phase: 12\u201321 October 2026, 2\u201311 November 2026, 6\u20139 December 2026, 22 February\u20133 March 2027
Main round play-off draw: 5 March 2027
Main round play-offs: 12\u201321 April 2027
Elite round group phase draw: 20 May 2027
Elite round group phase: 6\u201315 September 2027, 11\u201320 October 2027, 13\u201322 December 2027
Elite round play-off draw: 20 January 2028
Elite round play-offs: 10\u201319 April 2028<\/p>\n

UEFA qualifying format for 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup<\/p>\n

Preliminary round <\/p>\n

The teams in the preliminary round were drawn into six groups of four and compete in one-venue mini-tournaments<\/p>\n

All the group winners and runners-up qualify for the main round.<\/p>\n

Main round<\/p>\n

Main round group phase<\/p>\n

The 12 preliminary round qualifiers join the 24 teams entering directly in the main round. The 36 teams in the main round are drawn into 12 groups of three, played with home and away fixtures.<\/p>\n

The 12 group winners and the four best runners-up qualify for the elite round. The remaining eight runners-up qualify for the main round play-offs.<\/p>\n

Main round play-offs<\/p>\n

The eight teams are formed into four ties by means of an open draw. The winners of the four home and away ties qualify for the elite round.<\/p>\n

Elite round<\/p>\n

Elite round group phase<\/p>\n

The 20 teams are drawn into five groups of four teams, played with home and away fixtures. <\/p>\n

The five group winners qualify for the final tournament. The four best runners-up qualify for the elite round play-offs. If a European association is selected to host the final tournament, only the two best runners-up qualify for the elite round play-offs.<\/p>\n

\ufeffElite round play-offs<\/p>\n

The four teams are formed into two ties by means of an open draw. The winners of the two home and away ties qualify for the final tournament.<\/p>\n

Futsal World Cup roll of honour<\/p>\n

2024: Brazil 2-1 Argentina (Uzbekistan)
2021: Portugal 2-1 Argentina (Lithuania)
2016: Argentina 5-4 Russia (Colombia)
2012: Brazil 3-2aet Spain (Thailand)
2008: Brazil 2-2, 4-3pens Spain (Brazil)
2004: Spain 2-1 Italy (Chinese Taipei)
2000: Spain 4-3 Brazil (Guatemala)
1996: Brazil 6-4 Spain (Spain)
1992: Brazil 4-1 United States (Hong Kong)
1989: Brazil 2-1 Netherlands (Netherlands)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European qualifying for the 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup has begun with the preliminary round. Two of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-392117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}