Uefa has accepted the objection made by the Finnish Football Federation regarding the men’s national futsal team’s World Cup qualifying match against Armenia.
Armenia and Georgia were sentenced to 0-5 defeats for intimidating unrepresentable Brazilian players. The Football Association is waiting for the disciplinary decision of the European football association Uefa for the Georgia match at the weekend as well.
In September, Finland won the away match against Armenia in the elite round of the World Cup qualifiers 3-2, but the Football Association filed a protest with UEFA about the match, according to which the Armenian team was played by players without representation rights. On Tuesday, Uefa published a decision on the matter in favor of Finland and, in accordance with its disciplinary regulations, changed the final result of the match to Finland’s 5-0 away win.
Futsal manager of the Swedish Football Association Jyrki Filppu said in the Balloliitto’s press release that several European countries became aware of the unfair phenomenon already during the group draws.
– A strong suspicion arose, where there was reason to suspect that some countries had granted citizenship to Brazilian players who had played in the club teams of the countries in question, but the citizenship conditions defined by Fifa (International Football Federation) were not met in all respects, Filppu said.
– The method of operation has spoken widely, but now the first official objections were made to Uefa. We expect all countries involved in the international competition system to commit to the current rules.
Georgia match for UEFA reasons
According to UEFA’s press release, a protest was also made in the second match of Finland’s group, Portugal-Georgia, about the same issue. Uefa considered Georgia to have violated the rule related to the right of representation of the players and sentenced the country to a 0-5 defeat. The match originally ended with a 4-2 home win for Portugal.
On Saturday, Finland played in Tbilisi against Georgia, suffering a 2-5 loss. Filppu told STT that the Football Association has also reacted to the match played against Georgia.
– We have also reacted to Georgia’s player list in last Saturday’s game. We expect that the matter will be dealt with by UEFA’s disciplinary bodies, Filppu confirmed.
On Wednesday, Finland will face Georgia again in the qualifying match in Turku. Finland is currently third in the group behind reigning world champions Portugal and Georgia, but with possible disciplinary decisions, the group results may change.
“Now maybe a limit has been crossed”
The influence of Brazilian players has been enormous in the past years in Eastern European futsal countries. According to Filpu, the strong movement of Brazilian players to the Russian national team and leagues started more than ten years ago. Since then, the Brazilians have targeted the national teams of Kazakhstan and other countries, among others.
– I have clearly noticed in other futsal countries that this situation has aroused dissatisfaction and it has been quite broad and broad. Now maybe some limit has been crossed. This does not represent the direction we and Portugal want for the development of futsal, Filppu states.
According to Filpu, other countries besides Finland and Portugal have also approached Uefa about the same issue, regarding Brazilian players.
– This is a big deal in futsal circles. I am incredibly proud that we are involved in this and that we are more or less involved with Portugal.
The winners of the five World Cup qualifying groups of the UEFA elite round advance directly to the final tournament in Uzbekistan next fall. The four best from the second group qualify for the spring qualifying round.