The 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League was the 38th edition of Europe's premier club futsal tournament, and the 23rd edition organized by UEFA. It is also the sixth edition since the tournament was rebranded from "UEFA Futsal Cup" to UEFA Futsal Champions League. The final tournament was taken place at the Karen Demirchyan Complex in Yerevan, Armenia on 3–5 May 2024.
A total of 55 teams from 51 of the 55 UEFA member associations will participate in the 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League. The association ranking based on the UEFA futsal national team coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
The top three-ranked associations have two teams qualify.
The winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Futsal Champions League qualify automatically and its association can also enter a second team. If the title-holders' association is among the top three-ranked associations, the 4th ranked association is also entitled to enter a second team.
The remaining associations have one team qualify.
For this season, the top three-ranked associations are Portugal, Russia, and Spain. As the title holders are from Spain, the 4th ranked association, Kazakhstan, can enter two teams. After UEFA's decision to exclude Russian clubs from all UEFA competitions due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,[1] the right to enter a second team passed to the 5th ranked association, Croatia.[2]
Association ranking
The UEFA futsal national team coefficients at the end of April 2023, used to determine the number of teams each association was entitled to enter, was as follows.[3]
Association ranking for 2023–24 UEFA Champions League
NR – No rank (association national team had been inactive on the previous 36 months)
DNE – Did not enter
Distribution
For the 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League, the clubs' entry round was determined by their UEFA futsal club coefficients, which took into account their performance from the previous three seasons.[2]
Access list for 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
Preliminary round (32 teams)
32 teams ranked 23–54
Main round
Path A (16 teams)
Title holders
15 teams ranked 1–11 and 16–19
Path B (16 teams)
7 teams ranked 12–15 and 20–22
8 group winners from preliminary round
Preliminary round best runner-up
Elite round (16 teams)
4 group winners from main round path A
4 group runners-up from main round path A
4 group third-placed teams from main round path A
4 group winners from main round path B
Final tournament (4 teams)
4 group winners from elite round
Teams
Below are the participating teams of the 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League (with their ranking among participating teams), grouped by their starting round and path for the main round.[4]
The tournament has a mini-tournament format consisting of three qualifying rounds and the final tournament. The qualifying rounds consisted of the following stages:[2][5]
Preliminary round: 32 teams entering this round were divided into eight groups of four teams with the group winners advancing to the next round.
Main round:
Path A: 16 teams entering this round were divided into four groups of four teams, with the group winners, runners-up, and third-placed teams advancing to the next round.
Path B: 7 teams that entered in this round and the 9 teams advancing from the preliminary round were divided into four groups of four teams, with the group winners advancing to the next round.
Elite round: 16 teams advancing from the main round were divided into four groups of four teams, with the group winners qualifying for the final tournament.
In each group, teams played against each other in a single round-robin format hosted by one of the participating teams.
The final tournament is played at a centralized location and consisted of single-legged semi-finals, a third-place play-off, and final. If scores were level at the end of normal time, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the scores remained tied.
Tiebreakers
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 tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see Article 14 Equality of points – mini-tournaments, Regulations of the UEFA Futsal Champions League):[5]
Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (direct red card = 3 points; double yellow card = 3 points; single yellow card = 1 point);
If two teams that have the same number of points and have scored and conceded the same number of goals play their last mini-tournament match against each other and are still equal at the end of that match, their final rankings are determined by a penalty shoot-out provided that no other teams within the group have the same number of points on completion of the mini-tournament. This procedure is only necessary if a ranking of the teams is required to determine the team which qualifies for the next stage.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).[2]
Schedule for 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League
Phase
Round
Draw
Dates
Qualifying stage
Preliminary round
5 July 2023
23–26 August 2023
Main round
24–29 October 2023
Elite round
2 November 2023
28 November–3 December 2023
Final tournament
Semi-finals
14 March 2024
3 May 2024
Third-place play-off & final
5 May 2024
Preliminary round
The draw for the preliminary round was held on 5 July 2023, 14:00 CET.[6] The preliminary round will be played from 23 to 26 August 2023. The winners of each group and best runner-up progress to the main round Path B.
Times are CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Seeding
A total of 32 teams played in the preliminary round. Seeding of teams was based on their 2023 UEFA futsal club coefficients. Eight teams were pre-selected as hosts and were first drawn from a separate pot to their corresponding seeding position. The remaining teams were then drawn from their respective pots to their corresponding seeding position. Teams from Armenia & Azerbaijan, and Kosovo & Bosnia and Herzegovina could not be drawn into the same group.
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient ranking; 6) drawing of lots.
Main round
The draw for the preliminary round was held on 5 July 2023, 14:00 CET.[6]The main round will be played from 24 to 29 October 2023.
Times are CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Seeding
A total of 32 teams played in the main round. They were divided in two paths:
Path A (16 teams): The title holders and teams ranked 1–11 and 16–19. The top three teams on each group proceed to the elite round.
Path B (16 teams): Teams ranked 12–15 and 20-22 and 9 teams advancing from the preliminary round. The winners of each group move on to the elite round.
Seeding of teams was based on their 2023 UEFA futsal club coefficients. On Path B, the teams ranked 12th to 15th were in seeding position 1 and those ranked 20th to 22nd in position 2, along with one preliminary round winner. The remaining preliminary round winners were in a further pot to fill positions 3 and 4, while the best preliminary round runner-up is pre-allocated into Group 5 position 4.
Eight teams (four in each path) were pre-selected as hosts and were first drawn from a separate pot to their corresponding seeding position. The remaining teams were then drawn from their respective pots to their corresponding seeding position. Teams from Armenia & Azerbaijan, and Kosovo & Bosnia and Herzegovina could not be drawn into the same group.
Referee: Victor Chaix (France), Petar Radojcic (Serbia)
Elite round
The draw for the elite round was held on 2 November 2023, 14:15 CET.[7] The elite round was played from 29 November to 3 December 2023.
Times are CET, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Seeding
A total of 16 teams played in the elite round. Seeding of teams was based on their results in the previous round:
Seeding position 1: main round path A group winners.
Seeding position 2: main round path A runners-up.
Seeding positions 3 and 4 (drawn from the same pot): main round path A third-placed teams and path B group winners.
Four teams were pre-selected as hosts and were first drawn from a separate pot to their corresponding seeding position. Winners and runners-up from the same main round path A group could not be drawn into the same group.
