The 2022–23 UEFA Futsal Champions League was the 37th edition of Europe's premier club futsal tournament, and the 22nd edition organized by UEFA. It was also the fifth edition since the tournament was rebranded from "UEFA Futsal Cup" to UEFA Futsal Champions League. The final tournament took place at the Palma Arena in Palma de Mallorca, Spain on 5–7 May 2023.
Debutants Palma Futsal defeated Sporting CP on penalties in the final to claim their first title in the competition and became the fifth club to win the title in their debut appearance. Benfica took bronze after beating Anderlecht, the first Belgian side to reach the last four since 2007. Barcelona were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the elite round.
Association team allocation
A total of 56 teams from 52 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2022–23 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 2021–22 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 the 2022–23 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 2022, used to determine the number of teams each association was entitled to enter, was as follows.[3]
Association ranking for 2022–23 UEFA Champions League
NR – No rank (association national team had been inactive on the previous 36 months)
DNE – Did not enter
Distribution
For the 2022–23 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 2022–23 UEFA Futsal Champions League
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
Preliminary round (32 teams)
32 teams ranked 24–55
Main round
Path A (16 teams)
Title holders
15 teams ranked 1–11 and 16–19
Path B (16 teams)
8 teams ranked 12–15 and 20–23
8 group winners from preliminary round
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 team 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 2022–23 UEFA Futsal Champions League (with their ranking among participating teams), grouped by their starting round and path for the main round.[4]
The 2021–22 Serie A champions, Italservice Pesaro, withdrew from the tournament. Therefore, the runners-up Feldi Eboli were selected to be the Italian representatives.[5]
Format
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][6]
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: 8 teams that entered in this round and the 8 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):[6]
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.[2]
Schedule for 2022–23 UEFA Futsal Champions League
Phase
Round
Draw
Dates
Qualifying stage
Preliminary round
7 July 2022
24–28 August 2022
Main round
25–30 October 2022
Elite round
3 November 2022
22–26 November 2022
Final tournament
Semi-finals
5 April 2023
5 May 2023
Third-place play-off & final
7 May 2023
Preliminary round
The draw for the preliminary round was held on 7 July 2022, 14:30 CEST.[7] The preliminary round was played from 24 to 28 August 2022. The winners of each group advanced 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 2022 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.
The draw for the main round was held on 7 July 2022, 14:30 CEST.[7] The main round was played from 25 to 30 October 2022.
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.
Path B (16 teams): teams ranked 12–15 and 20–23 and 8 teams advancing from the preliminary round.
Seeding of teams was based on their 2022 UEFA futsal club coefficients. On Path B, the seeding position 3 and 4 were drawn from the same pot, comprising all teams advancing from the preliminary round. 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 Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina or Armenia and Azerbaijan could not be drawn into the same group.
Prodexim Kherson was chosen by the UAF as the Ukrainian representatives for the 2022/23 UEFA Futsal Champions League, due to the premature end of the Ukrainian Extra-Liga because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 14 September 2022, UEFA announced that due to the situation in the region and city of Kherson, Prodexim Kherson is not in a position to participate in the competition and will be replaced by Uragan Ivano-Frankivsk.[8]
Path A
The top three teams of each group in Path A advanced to the elite round.
Referee: Aleš Močnik Perič (SVN), Peter Nurse (ENG)
Elite round
The draw for the elite round was held on 3 November 2022, 14:15 CET.[51] The elite round was played from 22 to 26 November 2022.
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.
Six 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.
The four group winners from the Elite round played in the final tournament, which consisted of semifinals, a third-place play-off and a final. Palma Futsal were chosen as hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Nyon, Switzerland on 13 February 2023, with the final tournament taking place at the Velòdrom Illes Balears in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on 5 and 7 May 2023.[76]
Qualified teams
In the following table, finals or final tournaments until 2018 were in the Futsal Cup era, since 2019 were in the UEFA Futsal Champions League era. All appearances in two-legged finals (2003–2006) or final tournaments (2007–2020 and 2022: four-team finals, 2002 and 2021: eight-team finals) are counted.[77]
Group
Winners
Previous final tournament appearances (bold indicates winners)
The draw for the final tournament was held on 5 April 2023, 12:00 CET, by Lionel Scaloni at the Aubamar Hotel[78] in Palma. The four teams were drawn into two semi-finals without any restrictions.[79]
