2021–22 UEFA Futsal Champions League

The 2021–22 UEFA Futsal Champions League was the 36th edition of Europe's premier club futsal tournament, and the 21st edition organized by UEFA. It was also the fourth edition since the tournament was rebranded from "UEFA Futsal Cup" to UEFA Futsal Champions League.

Sporting CP, the title holders, entered in the main round. They lost 4–0 in the final against Barcelona, who won their fourth title.

Association team allocation

A total of 55 teams from 51 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2021–22 UEFA Futsal Champions League. The association ranking based on the UEFA futsal national team coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:

Associations 1–3 (since the title holders were in the top three) each had two teams qualify.
The winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Futsal Champions League qualified automatically and its association may have entered a second team. If the title-holders' association was among the three best ranked associations, the fourth ranked association was also entitled to enter a second team.
The remaining associations had one team qualify.

Association ranking

The UEFA futsal national team coefficients at the end of April 2020, used to determine the number of teams each association was entitled to enter, was as follows.^[1]

Notes

TH – Additional berth for title holders
NR – No rank (association national team had been inactive on the previous 36 months)
DNE – Did not enter

Distribution

For the 2021–22 UEFA Futsal Champions League, the clubs' entry round was determined by their UEFA futsal club coefficients, which took into account their performance from the previous three seasons. The following was the access list for the season.^[2]

Teams

Below were the participating teams of the 2021–22 UEFA Futsal Champions League (with their ranking among participating teams), grouped by their starting round and path for the main round.

Format

In this season, the tournament returned to the mini-tournament format consisting of three qualifying rounds and the final tournament. The qualifying rounds consisted of the following stages:^[3]

Preliminary round: 32 teams entering in this round were divided in eight groups of four teams with the winners and the best runners-up advancing to the next round.
Main round:
- Path A: 16 teams entering in this round were divided in four groups of four teams, with the winners, runners-up and third-placed teams advancing to the next round.
- Path B: 7 teams which entered in this round and the 9 teams advancing from the preliminary round were divided in four groups of four teams, with the winners advancing to the next round.
Elite round: 16 teams were divided in four groups of four teams, with the winners qualifying to the final tournament.

In each group, teams played against each other in a single round-robin format hosted by one of the participating teams.

The final tournament was played at a centralized location and consisted of single-legged semi-finals, third-place play-off and final. If scores were level at the end of normal time, extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the scores remained tied.

Tiebreakers

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 tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see Article 14 Equality of points – mini-tournaments, Regulations of the UEFA Futsal Champions League):^[3]

Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (direct red card = 3 points; double yellow card = 3 points; single yellow card = 1 point);
UEFA futsal club coefficients.

For the ranking of second-placed teams in the preliminary round, teams are also ranked according to points, with the following tiebreakers applying in case of a tie.

Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (direct red card = 3 points; double yellow card = 3 points; single yellow card = 1 point);
UEFA futsal club coefficients.

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).^[2]

Preliminary round

The draw for the preliminary round was held on 7 July 2021, 14:00 CEST.^[4] The preliminary round was played from 21 to 25 October 2021. The winners of each group and the best runners-up advanced to the main round Path B.

Times are CET (UTC+1), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Seeding

A total of 32 teams played in the preliminary round. Seeding of teams was based on their 2021 UEFA futsal club coefficients. Eight teams were pre-selected as hosts and were first drawn from a separate pot to their corresponding seeding position. The remaining teams were then drawn from their respective pots to their corresponding seeding position. Due to political reasons, teams from Kosovo and Serbia could not be drawn into the same group.

Notes

H – Mini-tournament hosts

Group A

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

21 August 2021