UEFA Futsal Champions League: Araz-Nakhchivan team leaves for Sweden

Araz-Nakhchivan team, which will play in the preliminary round of the UEFA Futsal Champions League, has left for Sweden, Azernews reports.

The head coach Vitaly Borisov took 14 futsal players, including three goalkeepers, to the matches of the first round of the UEFA Champions League. Marko Prsic stayed in Baku due to a health problem.

The team includes goalkeepers: Emin Kurdov, Kamran Hajiyev, and Vladislav Reznov, players: Khazar Aghalizadeh, Amadeu, Kanan Manafov, Kadinho, Ulvi Aliyev, Emil Hasanzadeh, Lazar Milosavljevic, Yanich Aleksandar, Giovanni Valerio, Caique Aledes De Oliveira, Iago Henrique.

It should be noted that Kamran Hajiyev, Kanan Manafov, and Iago Henrique were loaned from the "Baku Fire" club. They will join "Araz-Nakhchivan" in Champions League matches.

Araz-Nakhchivan will face Sparta Belfast (Northern Ireland) on August 21, the Estonian champion "Sillamae Silla" the next day, and the Swedish "Uddevalla" club on August 24. Only the group leaders will qualify for the main stage.

The UEFA Futsal Champions League is an annual futsal competition for European club teams organized by UEFA.

It was founded as the UEFA Futsal Cup in 2001 and replaced the Futsal European Clubs Championship, an unofficial competition held since 1984.

The final of the first edition was played in a single game in Lisbon, while the following four editions were decided over two legs. Since 2006–07, the winner is decided through a final four tournament.

In 2018, the tournament was rebranded as UEFA Futsal Champions League.

The 2024/25 UEFA Futsal Champions League consists of preliminary, main, and elite rounds played as one-venue mini-tournaments and a four-team knockout finals at a venue to be announced.

Notably, futsal is a ball sport played on a hard court, smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football.

The game is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by lines; walls or boards are not used.

Azerbaijan had never qualified for the FIFA Futsal World Cup until 2016. However, national futsal players participated in the last five editions of the European Championship.

Now the futsal team successfully represents Azerbaijan at multiple international futsal competitions such as the FIFA Futsal World Cup and the European Championships.

The team is ranked 14th in the world, the highest-ranking team from Caucasus in the World Rankings.