The UEFA qualifying competition for the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup was a men's futsal competition that determined the seven European national teams taking part in the final tournament in Colombia.[1]
The qualifying competition consisted of three rounds:[3]
Preliminary round: The 23 lowest-ranked teams were drawn into five groups of four teams and one group of three teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts (if a group was drawn without pre-selected hosts, the hosts were selected afterwards by agreement or draw by UEFA). The six group winners advanced to the main round.
Main round: The 28 teams (22 highest-ranked teams and six preliminary round qualifiers) were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts. The seven group winners and the seven runners-up advanced to the play-offs.
Play-offs: The 14 teams were drawn into seven ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the seven qualified teams.
Tiebreakers
In the preliminary round and main round, the teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[3]
Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 10 applied;
Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage).
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Coefficient ranking;
Drawing of lots.
In the play-offs, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out.[3]
Schedule
The qualifying matches were played on the following dates.[2]
Stage
Dates
Preliminary round
22–25 October 2015
Main round
10–13 December 2015
Play-offs
22 March & 12 April 2016
Entrants
The teams were ranked according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[3]
The 22 highest-ranked teams entered the main round, while the 23 lowest-ranked teams entered the preliminary round.[2] The coefficient ranking was also used for seeding in the preliminary round and main round draws.
Gibraltar entered despite being a non-FIFA member and thus ineligible for the World Cup.
Teams which were pre-selected as preliminary round or main round hosts were denoted by (H). As only three teams were pre-selected as preliminary round hosts, three preliminary round groups were drawn without pre-selected hosts, and the hosts would be selected afterwards by agreement or draw by UEFA.
The draws for the preliminary round and main round were held on 2 July 2015, 14:30 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[4][5] Each group in the preliminary round and main round contained one team from each of the seeding positions 1–4, except for one group in the preliminary round which contained one team from each of the seeding positions 1–3. The six teams which qualified from the preliminary round, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, were placed in seeding position 4 for the main round draw. In the preliminary round draw, the teams which were pre-selected as hosts could not be drawn in the same group, while in the main round draw, the teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from a separate pot, while being placed in their groups according to their seeding positions.
Preliminary round
Times were CEST (UTC+2), except for matches on 25 October 2015 which were CET (UTC+1).
Referee: Aleksandras Sliva (Lithuania), Vasilios Christodoulis (Greece)
Play-offs
The draw for the play-offs was held on 12 February 2016, 12:00 CET (UTC+1), at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belgrade, Serbia.[6][7] The seven group winners were seeded, and the seven group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were paired with the unseeded teams, with the former hosting the second leg. Teams from the same main round group could not be drawn against each other.
The first legs were played on 22 March, and the second legs were played on 12 and 13 April 2016. Times were CET (UTC+1) for first legs, and CEST (UTC+2) for second legs.
