Teams

Iberia Star Tbilisi

• They have replaced Brazilian coach and World Cup winning player, Sergio Benatti, just a few days before the tournament after they returned from a trip to Azerbaijan where they played two friendlies against Araz Naxçivan.
• Benatti cited a failure to agree contract terms after lengthy negotiations and an incident during these two friendly matches were the reason for his departure. The rumour is the incident was the president of the club threowing water at the players and insulting them.
• His assistant, Georgia’s all-time leading scorer and a former Iberia player player Aleksandr Sarkisyan, has been named as his replacement. He has been the head coach before, winning two championships.
• Along with the coach six Brazilian players also left. They have been replaced with 3 Brazilians (Fabio Monteiro, Kumano, Marcel Ribeiro) and Serbian Marko Peric.
• Serbian winger Marko Peric comes on loan from Araz for the tournament. He only recently signed for Araz from Dina Moscow in January.
• Top Goalscorer in the competition – Augusto (7)
• All the squads include a wealth of Brazilians. They have 7 included in their squad.
• Iberia are the only team to feature in every edition of the UEFA Futsal Cup but this is their first time in the finals.
• They have not dropped a point in their domestic competition since 2010
•  Elite round results – Luparense C/5 6-1, Győri ETO FC 2-2, SL Benfica 7-4.

FC Barcelona Alusport

• Their squad is the same as last year except the addition of Aicardo who replaced the departed former captian Javi Rodriguez, who now plays in Kuwait. In addition to the 12 first team regulars they are also taking three youth players from the B team.
• Pivot Fernandao is fit to play after missing last year’s final through injury
• However they have several other fitness issues. Defender and world champion Ari will not play despite training with the team in Georgia. Aicardo and captain Torras have just recently made comebacks from injury. Wilde returned a few weeks ago but is still not at 100% fitness.
• Top Goalscorer of the competition – Igor (5)
• Barca have 6 Brazilians though one plays for Italy and one for Spain
• They have achieved 1st position in the regular phase of the Spanish Premier Division with 2 games to spare. They will compete with 7 other teams in the playoffs from May.
• In February they won their 3rd consecutive Copa de España (Spanish Cup) defeating El Pozo Murcia 4-2 in the final.
• They will play the final of the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) on 11th May, again facing El Pozo Murcia and again it will be their 3rd consecutive trophy.
• This means they could possibly win the quadruple if they are able to retain the UEFA Futsal Cup and Spanish league.
• Spanish teams have won 6 out of the 12 editions of the tournament
• Elite round results – MNK Split 18-0, Araz Naxçivan 7-1, FC Litija 3-0

UEFA Futsal Cup Trophy

UEFA Futsal Cup