Ukraine's futsal team is preparing for the 2020 World Cup

08.02.2018 17:05

Photo fifa.com.

The national futsal team will hold a series of friendly matches in preparation for the 2020 World Cup.

The next official tournament for the national team of Ukraine after Euro-2018 will be the World Cup-2020, as now the European Championships will be held every four years.

Costa Rica, Croatia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, New Zealand and the UAE are vying to host the 2020 World Cup. Host country elections will take place this year. The forum itself will take place from September 12 to October 4, 2020.

According to the calendar developed by FIFA, there are two types of windows for matches of futsal teams. The first type involves a 10-day training camp with a maximum of four fights in a maximum of two confederations. The second type is a 4-day training camp with a maximum of two matches on the territory of one confederation. Accordingly, in 2018, FIFA installed four windows of the second type (April 1-4, September 23-26, October 28-31, December 2-5). In 2019, there are three windows of the first type (January 28 - February 6, April 8-17, October 21-30) and two windows of the second type (September 22-25, December 1-4). The dates of the World Cup qualifiers in each of the confederations, as well as the format, are still unknown.

Accordingly, in 2018 the Ukrainian national team will have a busy schedule and will hold a number of sparring sessions. In October, the blue and yellows will host the French team - all that remains is to receive confirmation from the tricolors. In February, Ukrainians plan to hold two friendly matches in Portugal. Also potential rivals of our team are Serbia, Finland and Holland.

As for the World Championships (and there have been eight of them in history), Ukraine has performed in five World Cups, including the last four. At the 1996 debut in Spain, the blue and yellows ranked fourth highest in history. In 2004 our team was sixth, in 2008 it finished eighth, in 2012 it stopped in the quarter-finals (sixth position), and in the last tournament it flew to 1/8 finals (13th position).