Iran plan to host Intl. futsal tournament on Kish Island
Mehr News – TEHRAN, Iranian Football Federation is planning to organize an international futsal tournament on Kish Island with the participation of countries from Asia and Europe.
The 2020 AFC Futsal Championship is scheduled to be hosted by Turkmenistan in November, and Iran as the defending champion has started preparing for the competition.
Negotiations are currently underway with Kuwait, Iraq, Belarus, Ukraine, and several other European countries to take part in the tournament due for September or October.
Six teams may participate in the tournament including Iran national senior and U20 futsal team.
This year’s AFC Futsal Championship will be the 16th edition of the AFC Futsal Championship, the biennial international futsal championship organized by the Asian Football Confederation for the men’s national teams of Asia.
A total of 16 teams take part in the tournament, originally scheduled to be played in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan between February 26 and March 8.
However, the AFC announced on February 3 that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament had been postponed following consultation with all relevant stakeholders.
On March 9, FIFA and AFC announced that the tournament was postponed to August 5–16, but in July, the tournament schedule was moved again to November 4–15.
Same as previous editions held in the same year as the FIFA Futsal World Cup, the tournament acts as the AFC qualifiers for the World Cup. The top five teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Lithuania as the AFC representatives.