Malta Futsal national team discovers World Cup qualifiers opponents

The Malta Futsal national team discovered their opponents for the qualifying round of the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Malta will be involved in the preliminary round to be contested between April 4 and 13.

A total of 24 teams will be involved in this early stage of the competition with the participants split into six mini-tournaments to grab one of the 12 berths available for the main round.

The Malta team, led by coach Zeljko Anicic, has been drawn in Group B alongside mini-tournament hosts Norway, Denmark and Cyprus.

The Malta national team was due to play friendlies against Cyprus, but since the two countries have been paired in the same group these warm-up matches, scheduled for next March, have now been dropped.

It is understood the Malta FA will now try to find new opponents.

The top two teams in each group progress to the main round group stage to join the 24 nations entering in that round: Spain, Russia, holders Portugal, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Italy, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Finland, Romania, Slovakia, Georgia, Belarus, Netherlands, Hungary, France, Belgium, Latvia, North Macedonia.

Preliminary round draw

Group A: Montenegro, Germany (hosts), San Marino, Gibraltar

Group B: Norway (hosts), Denmark, Cyprus, Malta

Group C: Kosovo, Armenia, Bulgaria (hosts), Scotland

Group D: Turkey, Israel, Lithuania (hosts), Northern Ireland

Group E: Albania, Sweden (hosts), Andorra, Austria

Group F: Moldova (hosts), Greece, Switzerland, Estonia