The year 2020 should have been the year in which futsal had an opportunity to raise its visibility. It is the year of the World Cup, the three weeks of the year when futsal will spread through the whole world with a great global focus on this sport.
World Cup 2020 should be the great and interesting tournament with South America as the biggest favourite for clinching the title since they have defending champion Argentina and the best futsal nation of all time Brazil. There are also Paraguay and Colombia as dark horses.
Europe has risen in futsal since the last World Cup in 2016 and has three countries (Spain, Portugal and Russia) that are one of the favourites for reaching the finals as well as some dark horses (Kazakhstan, Croatia, Serbia…).
Asia is developing fast and getting quite strong, with Iran (defending bronze medalist) and Japan as the best teams, and Africa will for the first time have a competitive participant in the name of Morocco.
North America is the complete underdog, even though there are some strong teams that can make an impact on the tournament (Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala), and it would be interesting to see if the United States will qualify and how will that great sports nation follow the performance of ist national team on the World Cup.
So, as you can see, we are expecting one great tournament.
But, we all know that world is currently immobilized because of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic that has already impact futsal since the AFC Futsal Championship 2020 has been postponed from 26 February – 6 March to 5-16 August 2020.
Besides that, there is a high probability that European play-offs, that should be played 9th and 12th April, will be postponed and it is highly uncertain whether the CONCACAF Futsal Championship (1-10 May in Guatemala) will be played on the scheduled date.
Since there are speculations that UEFA Euro 2020 will be postponed, as well as the Olympic games in Tokyo, there is a probability that Futsal World Cup 2020 will also be postponed.
We really hope that the warm weather will „kill“ the coronavirus and that people will make medicine and develop immunity until it returns in winter.
Futsal Feed will write during the World Cup, and if there will not be matches, we will continue to write stories, interviews, analysis about this great sport.
What is your opinion, how will this pandemic impact futsal and do you believe that the World Cup will be played in the scheduled date? Please write to us in comments.
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