Namibia will participate in the Futsal Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers for the first time when they lock horns with Tanzania in the first leg in Windhoek on Feb. 3.
Futsal is played on a hard court, smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and is played between two teams.
Namibia Fustal Ball vice chairman and co-founder Absai Simon said a provisional 22-man squad has been named so far, which will be trimmed to 16 players by today.
“We will be doing the last selection of the squad with the assistance of the national coach, Donawaldt Modise,” he said, ahead of the fast-paced competition which makes a return for the eighth edition of the quadrennial championship organized by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for men’s national teams in Africa.
Teams that will embark on the qualifiers include Mozambique vs Zambia; Libya vs Algeria; Ghana vs Cote d’Ivoire; Cameroon vs Mauritania and Namibia vs Tanzania.
The first leg of the fixtures will be played between February 2 to 4, while the return legs will take place between February 9 and 11. Current champions Morocco, Egypt, and Angola, who are all the highest-ranked nations in the competition, will gain automatic entry, while the winners of the above five fixtures will then join the three nations to make up the final eight.
The top three teams from the tournament will secure a spot at the 2024 Fifa Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan. According to Simon, Namibia introduced the country’s inaugural futsal league in 2020.
