Afghanistan has won the last ticket for the 10th Futsal World Cup which will take place from September 14 to October 6 in Uzbekistan.
By beating Kyrgyzstan 5-3 this Sunday during the Asian Cup, Afghanistan qualified for the first time for a major FIFA final phase (football, futsal, Beach soccer) and will count with France, Tajikistan and New Zealand among the four newbie participants next September.
The defending champion, Portugal, will be there, as will the Brazilian world champions (5 titles), Spain (two titles) and Argentina (one title) as well as Morocco, recent African champion.
The French team, tenth in the world rankings and recent winner of Brazil, will appear as outsiders.
Among those absent, Russia, Japan and Italy. The draw for the final phase will take place on Sunday May 26 in Samarkand. FIFA has not yet established the composition of the four hats which will determine the seeds.
The 24 qualified:
AFC: Uzbekistan (host country), Iran, Thailand, Afghanistan, Tajikistan.
CIF: Morocco, Angola, Libya.
CONCACAF: Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Panama.
CONMEBOL: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Venezuela.
OFC: New Zealand.
UEFA: Kazakhstan, France, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, Croatia, Netherlands.
