Australia Looking To Qualify For Fifth Consecutive

Australia will be attempting to qualify for it's fifth consecutive FIFA Futsal World Championship when the Oceania qualifying tournament commences this Sunday in Canberra. Australia will be joined by trans-Tasman rival New Zealand and island nations Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu at the qualifying tournament with the winner granted autom

Australia will be attempting to qualify for it's fifth consecutive FIFA Futsal World Championship when the Oceania qualifying tournament commences this Sunday in Canberra.  Australia will be joined by trans-Tasman rival New Zealand and island nations Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu at the qualifying tournament with the winner granted automatic entry to the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship.

Futsal often referred to as five-a-side or indoor soccer, is one of the fastest growing sports both in Australia and across much of the world, with 85 nations having entered the qualifying competition for the 2004 edition of the world championship. 

Coach of the Qantas Futsalroos Scott Gilligan, while wishing to remain cautious is optimistic of his team's chance of success, "On paper we would probably be considered favourites having qualified for all four previous world championships, but anything is possible on any given day as shown by the Solomon Islands in their recent World Cup match against the Socceroos.

"We have had a fairly good preparation over the last week or so and all the players are now just eager to get stuck into the matches."

Australia is one of only five nations to appear at all four previous FIFA Futsal World Championships since the first tournament was first held in 1989.  The previous tournaments were held in Holland (1989), Hong Kong (1992), Spain (1996) and Guatemala (2000).  Four years ago Spain secured the world championship after defeated Brazil, winners of the three previous tournaments.

The five day tournament will be played in a round-robin format with the winner advancing to the 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship.  The 16-team tournament will be held in Chinese Taipei from November 21 - December 5. 

The full tournament schedule of the OFC Futsal World Qualifying Tournament is:   Round 1 - Sunday, 25 July 2004 Match 1: 4.30pm New Zealand        V Vanuatu Match 2: 6.30pm Samoa V Fiji Match 3: 8.30pm Australia V Solomon Is   Round 2 - Monday, 26 July 2004 Match 4: 4.30pm Solomon Is V Samoa Match 5: 6.30pm Fiji V Vanuatu Match 6: 8.30pm New Zealand         V Australia   Round 3 - Tuesday, 27 July 2004 Match 7: 4.30pm Samoa V Vanuatu Match 8: 6.30pm Solomon Is V New Zealand Match 9: 8.30pm Australia V Fiji   Round 4 - Wednesday, 28 July 2004 Match 10: 4.30pm Fiji V New Zealand Match 11: 6.30pm Vanuatu V Solomon Is Match 12: 8.30pm Australia V Samoa   Round 5 - Thursday, 29 July 2004 Match 13: 4.30pm Fiji V Solomon Is Match 14: 6.30pm Samoa V New Zealand Match 15: 8.30pm Vanuatu V Australia

All matches will be played at the AIS Arena, Leverrier Cres, Bruce, Canberra.