The Netherlands and Finland will do battle for a place at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024™, while Poland will take on Croatia in the UEFA play-offs. The draw to determine Europe’s final two qualifiers was made in Nyon today.

The ties will be played over two legs on 8 and 17 April. The Netherlands and Poland will have home advantage in the first, while Finland and Croatia will host the second. Uzbekistan 2024 kicks off on 14 September.

“Before the draw I was sure it was Holland,” Finland coach Sergio Gargelli told FIFA. “Now it’s confirmed. I’m happy that we will play the first game away.

“I think Holland were the easiest draw from a certain point of view, but it doesn’t mean it will be the most simple. It depends on how we approach the games. Holland are a good team with good individuals.

“Everyone wants to go to the World Cup because going to the World Cup doesn’t happen very often in life. Every team has big motivation.”

“All three potential opponents would have been challenging,” commented Netherlands coach Miguel Andres, “because they are all higher ranked than us. But we are ambitious.

“We want to compete on the biggest stages, and we have already proven that we are hard to beat and can battle with top nations such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.

“Finland are our next challenge and will be fierce competitors for us. They have a team with strong and very fit players who play in big international competitions. Also, Finland invested a lot in futsal in recent years and you can see that this is paying off on the court.

“We are looking forward to the two matches against the Fins. We trust in our possibilities and, as always, we will do our best. The Netherlands have been absent from the World Cup since 2000. It’s time for us to change this.”

“We drew the team that we wanted to avoid, and the most capable of the three potential opponents,” Croatia coach Marinko Mavrovic admitted to FIFA. “We are talking about a national team that is constantly on the rise.

“How much Polish futsal has progressed in recent years is amply demonstrated by the fact that the Polish representatives were more successful than all three Croatian clubs in the [UEFA Futsal] Champions League: Novo Vrijeme, Futsal Dinamo and Olmissum.

“However, we will carefully analyse the Poles we beat at the last EURO (Croatia won 3-1) and prepare in the best possible way. The odds are 50-50.”

France, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine have already qualified for the 10th FIFA Futsal World Cup. The French will make their competition debut, while the Portuguese will defend the title they won at Lithuania 2021.

Netherlands seized silver at the first FIFA Futsal World Cup, appeared in its first four editions, but have missed its last five. Croatia and Poland have played in one edition of the tournament apiece, in 2000 and 1992 respectively, and Finland have never qualified.