Futsal EURO 2022: format, calendar

UEFA Futsal EURO 2022 is the first edition since the switch from the biennial 12-team tournament to a 16-nation finals held every four years, and there were big changes to qualifying too.

• Hosts: Netherlands
• Competition regulations

Qualifying format

Qualifying consists of four stages: qualifying round (mini-tournaments), qualifying round play-offs (home and away), qualifying group stage (home and away) and play-offs (home and away).

• Hosts Netherlands enter in final tournament
• The teams competing in the 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup elite round enter in the qualifying group stage: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine
• All other entrants start in the qualifying round

Qualifying round (29 January–1 February 2020)

• The teams were drawn into nine groups of three or four teams, played as mini-tournaments
• Group winners progress directly to the qualifying group stage
• The nine runners-up and five best third-placed teams (not counting results against fourth-placed teams if the round is a mixture of three and four-team groups) enter the qualifying play-offs

Qualifying round play-offs (2–11 November 2020)

• The 14 entrants were drawn into seven ties, to be played home and away (seven of the nine runners-up will play the second leg at home, no team could face a nation they met in the qualifying round)
• The winners of the ties complete the qualifying group stage line-up

Qualifying group stage (6 December 2020–14 April 2021)

• The 32 teams (16 World Cup elite round contenders, nine qualifying round group winners and seven qualifying round play-off winners) were drawn into eight groups of four
• For the first time, this round was be played home and away, with every team meeting twice
• The eight group winners and six best runners-up join the Netherlands in the finals, with the remaining two runners-up entering the play-offs

Play-offs (14–17 November 2021)

• The two runners-up who do not progress from the qualifying group stage will meet home and away, with a draw to determine the order of ties. The winners will join the other 15 contenders in the finals

Final tournament (19 January–6 February 2022, Netherlands)

• The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four, with the top two from each progressing to the quarter-finals

Knockout system:
Quarter-final 1: Winner Group B v Runner-up Group A
Quarter-final 2: Winner Group A v Runner-up Group B
Quarter-final 3: Winner Group C v Runner-up Group D
Quarter-final 4: Winner Group D v Runner-up Group C
Semi-final 1: Winner quarter-final 2 v Winner quarter-final 4
Semi-final 2: Winner quarter-final 1 v Winner quarter-final 3
Third-place match: Loser semi-final 1 v Loser semi-final 2
Final: Winner semi-final 1 v Winner semi-final 2