2017–18 UEFA Futsal Cup

2017–18 UEFA Futsal Cup
	The Pabellón Príncipe Felipe in Zaragoza hosted the final tournament
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying rounds:; 23 August – 26 November 2017; Final tournament:; 20–22 April 2018
Teams	Final tournament: 4; Total: 56 (from 52 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Inter FS (5th title)
Runners-up	Sporting CP
Third place	Barcelona
Fourth place	Győri ETO
Tournament statistics
Matches played	124
Goals scored	879 (7.09 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Season total:; Halim Selmanaj (12 goals); Final tournament:; Leandro Esquerdinha (4 goals)
	← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 UEFA Futsal Cup was the 32nd edition of Europe's premier club futsal tournament, and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Futsal Cup format organized by UEFA.

In a rematch of last season's final, defending champions Inter FS defeated Sporting CP to win a record fifth title to close out the UEFA Futsal Cup era, as starting from next season, the name of the tournament will be changed to the "UEFA Futsal Champions League".^[1] Barcelona defeated Győri ETO to finish third.^[2]

Association team allocation[edit]

Starting from this season, the top three-ranked associations according to the UEFA Futsal National Team coefficient rankings can enter two teams. Moreover, same as previous seasons, the title holders qualify automatically, and thus their association can also enter a second team. If the title holders are from the top three-ranked associations, the fourth-ranked association can also enter two teams.^[3] All other associations can enter one team (the winners of their regular top domestic futsal league, or in special circumstances, the runners-up).^[4] Therefore, a maximum of 59 teams from the 55 UEFA member associations may enter the tournament.

Association ranking[edit]

For the 2017–18 UEFA Futsal Cup, the associations are allocated places according to their 2017–18 UEFA Futsal National Team coefficient rankings, calculated based on the following:^[5]

UEFA Futsal Euro 2014 final tournament and qualifying competition
UEFA Futsal Euro 2016 final tournament and qualifying competition
2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup final tournament and qualifying competition

Since the winners of the 2016–17 UEFA Futsal Cup, Inter FS, are from the top three-ranked associations, the fourth-ranked association can also enter two teams.

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams
1	Russia	10,605	2
2	Spain	10,017
3	Portugal	9,250
4	Italy	8,889
5	Ukraine	7,944	1
6	Azerbaijan	7,544
7	Slovenia	6,389
8	Kazakhstan	6,333
9	Serbia	5,556
10	Croatia	5,556
11	Czech Republic	4,667
12	Romania	4,278
13	Hungary	4,222
14	Slovakia	3,389
15	Netherlands	3,333
16	Belgium	3,278
17	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3,000
18	Belarus	2,667
19	Poland	2,056

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams
20	Macedonia	2,000	1
21	Finland	1,583
22	Turkey	1,444
23	France	1,278
24	Latvia	1,222
25	Georgia	1,028
26	Norway	1,000
27	Sweden	0,944
28	England	0,944
29	Greece	0,889
30	Moldova	0,750
31	Denmark	0,722
32	Montenegro	0,667
33	Bulgaria	0,611
34	Switzerland	0,472
35	Armenia	0,444
36	Andorra	0,389
37	Lithuania	0,389

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams
38	Albania	0,333	1
39	Israel	0,333
40	Cyprus	0,222
41	Wales	0,222
42	Estonia	0,111
43	Gibraltar	0,111
44	Malta	0,000
45	San Marino	0,000
46	Scotland	0,000
(NR)	Germany	0.000
	Kosovo
	Austria
	Luxembourg
	Northern Ireland
	Republic of Ireland
	Faroe Islands		0 (DNE)
	Iceland
	Liechtenstein

Notes

(TH) – Additional berth for title holders
(DNE) – Did not enter
(NR) – No rank (association did not enter in the competitions used for computing coefficients)

Distribution[edit]

Following expansion of the tournament, the top-ranked teams no longer receive byes to the elite round, and the number of teams in the main round is increased from 24 to 32. Teams are ranked according to their UEFA club coefficients,^[6] computed based on results of the last three seasons, to decide on the round they enter and their seeding positions in the preliminary and main round draws:^[7]

The title holders and the teams ranked 1–22 or 23 (depending on the number of entries) enter the main round, divided into Path A and Path B.
- Path A contains the title holders and the teams ranked 1–11 and 16–19, and the 16 teams are drawn into four groups of four. The top three teams of each group advance to the elite round.
- Path B contains the teams ranked 12–15 and 20–22 or 23, and together with the preliminary round qualifiers (8 or 9 teams), the 16 teams are drawn into four groups of four. The winners of each group advance to the elite round.
The remaining teams enter the preliminary round, and are drawn into groups of three or four. The winners of each group plus one or more best runners-up advance to main round Path B.

The elite round remains to be contested by 16 teams, drawn into four groups of four, where the group winners and runners-up from main round Path A are seeded into the top two pots and kept apart if they are from the same group. The winners of each group advance to the final tournament, which is played in the same knockout format as before.

Teams[edit]

A record total of 56 teams from 52 associations entered this season's competition.^[8] Two associations had no league as of 2016–17 (Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein). The champions of Iceland (UMF Selfoss) did not enter. Northern Ireland launched a futsal league in 2016, and entered for the first time, with their entrant to be confirmed after the draw in July 2017.

Among the entrants, 24 teams entered the main round and 32 teams entered the preliminary round. The hosts for the eight preliminary round groups and the eight main round groups were announced by UEFA on 20 June 2017.^[9]

Legend

TH: Futsal Cup title holders
CH: National champions
RU: National runners-up
(H): Preliminary and main round hosts

Main round
Rank	Team	Coeff.^[6]	Path	Seed
TH	Inter FS (CH)^[10]	57,000	A	1
1	Kairat Almaty (CH)^[11]	45,500
2	Sporting CP (CH)^[12]	38,166
3	Barcelona (RU)^[10]	37,667
4	Dina Moskva (RU)^[13]	28,334		2
5	Dinamo Moskva (CH)^[13]	25,001
6	EP Chrudim (CH)^[14]	19,502
7	Ekonomac (CH)^[15] (H)	19,001
8	Nikars Riga (CH)^[16]	16,500		3
9	Pescara (RU)^[17]	16,500
10	Braga/AAUM (RU)^[12]	15,833
11	Győri ETO (CH)^[18]	14,168
12	Slov-Matic Bratislava (CH)^[19] (H)	14,000	B	1
13	Araz Naxçivan (CH)^[20]	13,001
14	Halle-Gooik (CH)^[21]	11,000
15	Nacional Zagreb (CH)^[22] (H)	10,001
16	Luparense (CH)^[17] (H)	9,167	A	4
17	Brezje Maribor (CH)^[23] (H)	7,833
18	Stalitsa Minsk (CH)^[24] (H)	6,001
19	Prodexim Kherson (CH)^[25]	5,501
20	Garges Djibson (CH)^[26]	5,167	B	2
21	Autobergamo Deva (CH)^[27] (H)	4,834
22	Sievi Futsal (CH)^[28] (H)	4,834
23	STU Telasi (CH)^[29]	4,168

Preliminary round
Rank	Team	Coeff.^[6]	Seed
24	Shkupi (CH)^[30]	3,334	1
25	Levski Sofia Zapad (CH)^[31]	2,875
26	Helvécia (CH)^[32]	2,834
27	BTS Rekord Bielsko-Biała (CH)^[33]	2,501
28	Anorthosis Famagusta (CH)^[34] (H)	2,500
29	Jahn Regensburg (CH)^[35]	2,084
30	Flamurtari Vlorë (CH)^[36]	1,751
31	Liburni Gjakovë (CH)^[37]	1,667
32	Titograd (CH)^[38]	1,584	2
33	ZVV 't Knooppunt (CH)^[39]	1,500
34	Doukas SAC (CH)^[40]	1,500
35	Classic Chişinău (CH)^[41]	1,375
36	Mostar SG Staklorad (CH)^[42] (H)	1,334
37	IFK Uddevalla (CH)^[43] (H)	1,167
38	Luxol St Andrews (CH)^[44]	1,167
39	Lynx (CH)^[45]	0,834
40	Sjarmtrollan IL (CH)^[46] (H)	0,667	3
41	København (CH)^[47] (H)	0,584
42	Leo (CH)^[48]	0,584
43	Transylvania (CH)^[49]	0,584
44	Encamp (CH)^[50]	0,500
45	Vytis (CH)^[51]	0,500
46	Diamantz Linz (CH)^[52] (H)	0,500
47	Arnavutköy Belediyespor (CH)^[53]	0,500
48	Maccabi Futsal (CH)^[54]	0,417	4
49	Tre Fiori (CH)^[55]	0,251
50	Narva United (CH)^[56]	0,250
51	Differdange 03 (CH)^[57] (H)	0,167
52	Wrexham (CH)^[58]	0,084
53	Minerva (CH)^[59] (H)	0,000
54	TMT Futsal Club (CH)^[60]	0,000
55	Belfast United (CH)^[61]	0,000

The draws for the preliminary and main rounds were held on 6 July 2017, 14:00 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[62]^[63] The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:^[8]

In the preliminary round, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four containing one team from each of the seeding positions 1–4. First, the eight teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 24 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions.
In the main round Path A, the 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four containing one team from each of the seeding positions 1–4. First, the four teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 12 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions. Teams from the same association could be drawn against each other.
In the main round Path B, the 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four containing one team from each of the seeding positions 1–2 and two group winners from the preliminary round. First, the four teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 12 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions, including the eight group winners from the preliminary round whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, which were first allocated to fill position 4 of all groups before position 3.

Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, teams from Azerbaijan/Armenia and Kosovo/Bosnia and Herzegovina would not be drawn into the same group. Should any of the above teams win their preliminary round group and qualify for a main round group with a team they cannot play against, they would be swapped with the next available team in their seeding position following the numerical order of the groups.

Round and draw dates[edit]

The schedule of the competition is as follows.^[64]

Round	Draw	Dates
Preliminary round	6 July 2017	22–27 August 2017
Main round	6 July 2017	10–15 October 2017
Elite round	19 October 2017	21–26 November 2017
Final tournament	14 March 2018	Semi-finals: 20 April 2018^[65] Third place match & Final: 22 April 2018^[65]

In the preliminary round, main round and elite round, the schedule of each mini-tournament is as follows (Regulations Article 19.05):

Note: For scheduling, the hosts are considered as Team 1, while the visiting teams are considered as Team 2, Team 3, and Team 4 according to their coefficient rankings.

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	2 v 4, 1 v 3
Matchday 2	3 v 2, 1 v 4
Rest day	—
Matchday 3	4 v 3, 2 v 1

Format[edit]

In the preliminary round, main round, and elite round, each group is played as a round-robin mini-tournament at the pre-selected hosts.

In the final tournament, the four qualified teams play in knockout format (semi-finals, third place match, and final), either at a host selected by UEFA from one of the teams, or at a neutral venue.

Tiebreakers[edit]

In the preliminary round, main round, and elite round, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):^[4]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA club coefficient;
Drawing of lots.

Preliminary round[edit]

The winners of each group advanced to the main round path B to join the eight teams which received byes to the main round path B (while the remaining 16 teams received byes to the main round Path A).

All times are CEST (UTC+2).

Group A[edit]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Minerva (H)	3	3	0	0	11	4	+7	9	Main round
2	Helvécia	3	2	0	1	14	5	+9	6
3	Lynx	3	0	1	2	6	14	−8	1
4	Transylvania	3	0	1	2	6	14	−8	1

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

23 August 2017