From Tanzania to Bhutan, 64 teams from around the world entered the FIFFSA 5-A-Side World Cup dreaming of glory. For half of them the dream is over, but the other half will be packing their suitcases ready for a virtual trip to Thailand for the finals.
Final Week of Qualifying
The final round of qualification began with one place or more in the finals up for grabs in all the groups except AFC/OFC A and CAF. Tahiti claimed top spot in AFC/OFC A with a narrow win over Japan and Djibouti beat Zimbabwe to lock up first place in CAF. They will be joined in the finals by Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Egypt, Zambia and the Seychelles.
Columbia’s win over Bolivia was enough to not only claim the remaining qualification place in CONMEBOL, but also propel them up to second in the group topped by Argentina. Bolivia could be the unluckiest team in qualifying. They were the fifth highest scoring team in the whole qualification process, but ended up finishing seventh out of eight in their group. In a last gasp bid for qualification Bolivia unleashed a wildcard, a bench boost and triple captain in the final round. Unfortunately for them the chosen triple captain, Riyad Mahrez, returned just one point before the armband bonus was added. Chile went out in style scoring 371 against a Peru side led from the front by captain BibelNissen, whose 96 was the highest score among all competing players this week.
Russia’s wolves_simmo scored 92 points, but luckily for Portugal he was on the bench and the Portuguese won by six points to cement their position at head of UEFA B. There was a six-way fight beneath them for the three remaining qualification spots going into the final games and Finland, Germany, Bosnia and Poland all finished with 12 qualification points. Sadly for Poland their 2027 FPL points were not enough and they won’t be going to Thailand – unlike 12 teams who scored fewer FPL points in qualification.
UEFA A and UEFA C were wide open going into the final round, with the Republic of Ireland the only one of the 16 teams unable to qualify. Wales recorded a monster score of 404 – the highest by any team this week – to secure first place in UEFA A. They will be joined by Northern Ireland, Montenegro and Norway, who qualified despite losing to France. Norway’s 1958 FPL points was the second lowest of a team to qualify and the fifty-eighth lowest overall. Iceland, who came 60 out 64 teams for FPL points scored in qualification, made it through despite losing their final match to Italy, who topped UEFA C. They will be joined in the finals by Belgium and Israel – the latter was one of only two to make it through with fewer than four wins.
Sri Lanka, who had lost their opening four games, qualified with just three wins in AFC/OFC B. They ended up tied on nine qualification points with Thailand, the Soloman Islands and Iran but went through by virtue of FPL points scored. Iran will be kicking themselves for benching Holy See’s 62 points given they lost their final match against Singapore by just two points. New Caledonia topped the group and they will head to the finals with Australia and Singapore.
There was a five-way fight for the remaining two spots in the CONCACAF group, but Jamaica and Mexico tallied healthy scores of 371 and 331 respectively to book their place in the finals with Costa Rica and Cuba.
The final qualification group standings can be found in the qualification tables spreadsheet.
Our congratulations go to all 32 teams that qualified and our commiserations to the 32 that didn’t – you have our thanks too for your involvement in the competition and for helping to make it a success so far.
A special mention must go to San Marino, North Korea and Scotland for their lively banter and press conferences. San Marino went out with another press conference win as their rendition of We’ll be Marinos (to the tune of David Bowie’s Heroes) narrowly beat Poland’s Akon-inspired effort. All those nations that failed to qualify are most welcome to bring their supporters along to add to the atmosphere in Thailand!
Finals Preview
Those that are making the virtual trip to the finals in Thailand will find out who they face when the draw is made for the pool stages this week. The teams have been seeded according to their finishing position in their qualifying group, so Pot 1 will be made up of the teams that won their qualifying group, Pot 2 of the teams that came second, Pot 3 of those who that came third and Pot 4 of those who came fourth. There will be eight pools of four teams with one team drawn from each pot. No team will be able to face a pool match against a qualification opponent.
The pots will be as follows:
Pot 1: Argentina, Costa Rica, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Wales, Portugal, Italy, Djibouti
Pot 2: Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Singapore, Northern Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Egypt
Pot 3: Uruguay, Jamaica, Malaysia, Australia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Zambia
Pot 4: Peru, Mexico, India, Sri Lanka, Norway, Germany, Israel, the Seychelles
The draw will take place in the comments section of this article. Please keep an eye on the comments for details of when it will be held.
Pool matches will begin immediately, in Gameweek 23, with the top seeds in each pool playing the second seeds, and the third seeds facing the fourth seeds. The full match schedule will be published once the draw has been made.
If you have any further queries, feel free to ask below in the comments or email us at: fiffsa.exec@gmail.com
Enjoy the tournament; this is finals of the FIFFSA 5-A-Side World Cup. Accept no imitations.
As a final request, please do try and keep FIFFSA 5-A-Side chat to the comment sections of our articles.
The FIFFSA Executive Committee – President Sepp Balders, VP BabyB, VP Jaffalicious!, VP Diva, VP Blue Lion and Secretary General Jerome Cheeseoid.
