FIFA Futsal World Cup Information & FIFA Futsal World Cup Links at HealthHaven.com

The FIFA Futsal World Cup is the international championship for futsal, an indoor version of football.

The world championship tournament is held every four years, on the even year between two Football World Cups. The first event was held in 1989, the year FIFA became the world governing body of futsal. It was held in the Netherlands to commemorate the popularity of the game there. Through the 2004 Futsal World Championships, only two countries have taken the Futsal World Championship -- Brazil winning the first three, defeating the host Spaniards in 1996 to win their third title, followed by Spain winning the next two, defeating Brazil in 2000, then Italy in 2004 in the first Futsal World Championship final that didn't feature Brazil. In 2008 Brazil became the first host country to win the Championship beating Spain in a Penalty Shootout. The next event will be held in 2012 with regional qualifying expected to start in mid-2011.

All events prior to the 2008 World Cup has been 16-team events. The first event featured 6 from Europe, 3 from South America, two from Africa, two from Asia, two from North and Central America, and one from Oceania. By 2004, the breakdown was Europe 5 teams, Asia 4 (including the hosts, competing as Chinese Taipei), South America 3, North and Central America 2, Africa and Oceania one each. At 2008 for the first time, 20 teams participate making this the largest edition ever held.

The first stage of the event features four groups of five teams. The top two teams in each group then advance to a second stage of two groups of four teams. This is followed by a four-team knockout final series.

[edit] Summaries

Year	Host	Final			Third Place
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1989 Details	Netherlands	Brazil	2–1	Netherlands	United States	3–2 a.e.t.	Belgium
1992 Details	Hong Kong	Brazil	4–1	United States	Spain	9–6	Iran
1996 Details	Spain	Brazil	6–4	Spain	Russia	3–2	Ukraine
2000 Details	Guatemala	Spain	4–3	Brazil	Portugal	4–2	Russia
2004 Details	Chinese Taipei	Spain	2–1	Italy	Brazil	7–4	Argentina
2008 Details	Brazil	Brazil	2–2 a.e.t. (4–3 PSO)	Spain	Italy	2–1	Russia
2012 Details	Thailand

[edit] Ranking

Pos.	Team	Champion	Runner-up	Third	Fourth
1st	Brazil	4 (1989, 1992, 1996, 2008)	1 (2000)	1 (2004)
2nd	Spain	2 (2000, 2004)	2 (1996, 2008)	1 (1992)
3rd	United States		1 (1992)	1 (1989)
3rd	Italy		1 (2004)	1 (2008)
5th	Netherlands		1 (1989)
6th	Russia			1 (1996)	2 (2000, 2008)
7th	Portugal			1 (2000)
8th	Belgium				1 (1989)
	Iran				1 (1992)
	Ukraine				1 (1996)
	Argentina				1 (2004)

[edit] See also

AMF Futsal World Cup

[edit] External links

RSSSF archive

Contents

[edit] Summaries

[edit] Ranking

[edit] See also

[edit] External links