The UEFA qualifying competition for the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup was a men's futsal competition that determined the seven European national teams taking part in the final tournament in Colombia.

The national teams from a total of 45 UEFA member associations entered the qualifying competition. Denmark, Gibraltar, Sweden and Wales made their FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifying debuts.

Format The qualifying competition consisted of three rounds: Preliminary round: The 23 lowest-ranked teams were drawn into five groups of four teams and one group of three teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts (if a group was drawn without pre-selected hosts, the hosts were selected afterwards by agreement or draw by UEFA). The six group winners advanced to the main round. Main round: The 28 teams (22 highest-ranked teams and six preliminary round qualifiers) were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams which were pre-selected as hosts. The seven group winners and the seven runners-up advanced to the play-offs. Play-offs: The 14 teams were drawn into seven ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the seven qualified teams.

Tiebreakers In the preliminary round and main round, the teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 10 applied; Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches; Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches; If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage). Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Coefficient ranking; Drawing of lots.

In the play-offs, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out.

Schedule The qualifying matches were played on the following dates.

StageDatesPreliminary round22–25 October 2015Main round10–13 December 2015Play-offs22 March & 12 April 2016

Entrants The teams were ranked according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following: UEFA Futsal Euro 2012 final tournament and qualifying competition 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup final tournament and qualifying competition UEFA Futsal Euro 2014 final tournament and qualifying competition

The 22 highest-ranked teams entered the main round, while the 23 lowest-ranked teams entered the preliminary round. The coefficient ranking was also used for seeding in the preliminary round and main round draws.

+Teams entering main round+Seeding position 1 Team 8.410 1 (H) 8.278 2 8.167 3 (H) 7.000 4 5.889 5 (H) 4.667 6 (H) 4.528 7+Seeding position 2 Team 4.528 8 4.444 9 4.167 10 3.722 11 (H) 2.667 12 2.556 13 (H) 2.167 14+Seeding position 3 Team 2.111 15 1.944 16 1.778 17 (H) 1.722 18 1.667 19 1.444 20 1.333 21+Seeding position 4 Team 1.222 22 +Teams entering preliminary round+Seeding position 1 Team 1.167 23 1.056 24 1.000 25 0.917 26 0.833 27 (H) 0.833 28+Seeding position 2 Team 0.694 29 0.667 30 0.611 31 (H) 0.611 32 0.611 33 0.444 34+Seeding position 3 Team 0.389 35 0.389 36 0.333 37 (H) 0.333 38 0.222 39 0.222 40+Seeding position 4 Team 0.111 42 0.000 43 0.000 44 0.000 45 0.000 46 Notes Iceland (Coeff: 0.222; Rank 41), Republic of Ireland (Coeff: 0.000; Rank 47), Austria (no rank), Faroe Islands (no rank), Germany (no rank), Liechtenstein (no rank), Luxembourg (no rank), Northern Ireland (no rank), and Scotland (no rank) did not enter. Gibraltar entered despite being a non-FIFA member and thus ineligible for the World Cup. Teams which were pre-selected as preliminary round or main round hosts were denoted by (H). As only three teams were pre-selected as preliminary round hosts, three preliminary round groups were drawn without pre-selected hosts, and the hosts would be selected afterwards by agreement or draw by UEFA.

The draws for the preliminary round and main round were held on 2 July 2015, 14:30 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Each group in the preliminary round and main round contained one team from each of the seeding positions 1–4, except for one group in the preliminary round which contained one team from each of the seeding positions 1–3. The six teams which qualified from the preliminary round, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw, were placed in seeding position 4 for the main round draw. In the preliminary round draw, the teams which were pre-selected as hosts could not be drawn in the same group, while in the main round draw, the teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from a separate pot, while being placed in their groups according to their seeding positions.

Preliminary round Times were CEST (UTC+2), except for matches on 25 October 2015 which were CET (UTC+1).

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Main round All times were CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Play-offs The draw for the play-offs was held on 12 February 2016, 12:00 CET (UTC+1), at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belgrade, Serbia. The seven group winners were seeded, and the seven group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were paired with the unseeded teams, with the former hosting the second leg. Teams from the same main round group could not be drawn against each other.

Seeding GroupWinners(Seeded in play-off draw)Runners-up(Unseeded in play-off draw)1234567

Summary

Matches The first legs were played on 22 March, and the second legs were played on 12 and 13 April 2016. Times were CET (UTC+1) for first legs, and CEST (UTC+2) for second legs.

Spain won 5–2 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Ukraine won 11–1 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Kazakhstan won 8–1 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Portugal won 4–2 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Russia won 6–3 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Azerbaijan won 9–5 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Italy won 9–0 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams The following seven teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament:

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1 (1989, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012) (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012) (20002) (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012) (1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012) (debut) (1989, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012) 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year. 2 Kazakhstan qualified as a member of the AFC in 2000.

Goalscorers 8 goals

Fernando Cardinal

7 goals

Eduardo

6 goals

Vitaliy Borisov Cristian Obadă Dan Mönell

5 goals

Amadeu Mads Falck Stuart Cook Giorgi Tikurishvili Alex Merlim Maksims Seņs Oleg Hilotii Milovan Drašković Miguelín Mykhailo Grytsyna

4 goals

Aleksandr Chernik Sergei Silivonchik Kamel Hamdoud Abdessamad Mohammed Serik Zhamankulov Andrian Laşcu Andrei Negara Tomasz Kriezel Fábio Cecílio Robinho Jesús Aicardo Álex Yepes Yevgen Valenko Serhiy Zhurba

3 goals

Azem Brahimi Roald Halimi Carlos Barbosa Augusto Fineo De Araujo Tomo Bevanda Josip Suton Markos Ioannou Michal Mareš Jacob Jensen Raoni Medina Richard Ward Miika Hosio Juhana Jyrkiäinen Azdine Aigoun Adrien Gasmi Irakli Todua János Rábl Douglas Júnior Dauren Nurgozhin Yotam Bliech Adam Cohen Alessandro Patias Sergio Romano Oskars Ikstēns Adrijan Micevski Alexei Munteanu Tevfik Ceyar Bartłomiej Nawrat Ricardinho Eder Lima Raúl Campos Mladen Kocić Igor Osredkar Sargon Abraham Kristian Legiec Volodymyr Razuvanov Yevgen Rogachov Rico Zulkarnain

2 goals

Gentian Begaj Nacho Llamas Aleksandr Olshevski Sergei Shostak Omar Rahou Jakov Grcić Franko Jelovčić Dario Marinović Vedran Matošević Kostas Antreou Costas Kouloumbris Rasmus Johansson Kevin Jørgensen Ian Parkes Kristjan Paapsi Vladislav Tšurilkin Panu Autio Sid Belhaj Vakhtangi Jvarashvili Murtaz Kakabadze Zurab Lukava Gia Nikvashvili Andrew Lopez Apostolos Gkaifyllias Zoltán Dróth Ádám Hosszú Péter Németh Mauro Canal Rodolfo Fortino Leo Jaraguá Chingiz Yesenamanov Andrejs Aleksejevs Igors Dacko Artjoms Koļesņikovs Igor Leovski Jovica Milijic Mohamed Attaibi Zaid El Morabiti Marcin Mikołajewicz Tiago Brito Djô Marius Matei Sergei Abramov Dmitri Lyskov Rômulo Matteo Michelotti Marko Perić Slobodan Rajčević Marek Belaník Tomáš Drahovský Rok Mordej Adolfo Bebe Pola Mario Rivillos Hanna Abraham Mathias Eteus Ihor Borsuk Sergiy Koval Denys Ovsyannikov Petro Shoturma Chris Hugh Tyrell Webbe

1 goal

Almir Hasaj Rej Karaja Mentor Mejzini Armen Babayan Henrik Grigoryan Vardan Gukasyan Grigor Kapukranyan Garegin Mashumyan Sargis Nasibyan Ramiz Chovdarov Sergey Chuykov Rizvan Farzaliyev Rafael Oleg Gorbenko Aleksei Popov Ibrahim Adnane Valentin Dujacquier Lúcio Jawad Yachou Hamza Zaaf Ivan Matan Nijaz Mulahmetović Dejan Pavlović Anel Radmilović Marin Šunjić Daniel Nestorov Yosif Shutev Kristijan Grbeša Manolis Manoli David Cupák Michal Seidler Radim Záruba Rasmus Lørup Arildsen Louis Veis William Gay Agon Rexha Maksim Aleksejev Sergei Korsunov Joni Pakola Antti Teittinen Samir Alla Boumedyen Bensaber Réda Rabei Kevin Ramirez Tornike Bukia Levan Kobaidze Kakhaber Maisaia Lasha Sigunava Joseph Chipol Ivan Robba Jamie Walker Vasilis Asimakopoulos Petros Katevtsian Spyridon Kondylatos Kostas Malovits Andreas Mantis Kostas Panou Richárd Dávid Norbert Horváth Bence Klacsák Szabolcs Szeghy Yoav Hagbi Asif-Yosef Sabag Gabriel Lima Japa Kaká Vinícius dos Santos Leo Higuita Arnold Knaub Dinmukhambet Suleimenov Jurijs Arhipovs-Prokofjevs Igors Avanesovs Andrejs Šustrovs Vaidas Garšvinskas Jurij Jeremejev Rolandas Leščius Deividas Stradalovas Aleksandar Gligorov Daniel Marinho de Souza Dragan Petrović Andy Mangion Dylan Musu Xavier Saliba Luke Stivala Constantin Burdujel Sergiu Tacot Alexandr Ţîmbalist Bojan Bajović Saša Gojković Semir Gurzaković Ilija Mugoša Jeroen de Groot Jamal El Ghannouti Karim Mossaoui Yoshua St Juste Mats Velseboer Mathias Dahl Abelsen Omar Fonstad Dennis Obeng Erlend Skaga Rafał Franz