Defending champions Iran, 2002 AFC futsal title favourites

Persianleague
- Jul 25, 2002
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Kuala Lumpur, July 25, IRNA - Iran looks too strong for the rest of the cast in their bid to capture an unprecedented fourth straight title in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Futsal Championship, which kicks off at the Istora Senyan Indoor stadium in Jakarta from October 22-30. 
Iran won the last championship held last year in Tehran, beating Uzbekistan 9-0 in the final. "It might just be the same story in this year's championship as the gap between Iran and the rest of Asia looks just too wide to bridge," AFC said in a statement on Thursday. 
Iran is drawn in Group B with Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and Turkmenistan at the draw ceremony in Jakarta on July 22, which was conducted by AFC General Secretary Peter Velappan. 
Iran will begin their campaign against Uzbekistan in what is a rematch of last year's final. 
Nevertheless, AFC said this year's tournament won't be lacking in class as most teams had started preparing early. 
It said with Iran looking good for the title again, the focus is now expected to be on the other challengers, namely Uzbekistan, Japan, Korea Republic and Chinese Taipei. Chinese Taipei who failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the
AFC 2001 Futsal Championship in Tehran, showed especially a lot of determination and vigour with its group of young players and is now expected to put up a better showing in Jakarta. 
Japan is in Group C together with China, hosts Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait. 
Korea Republic who finished third in last year's championship, have Tajikistan, Vietnam, Thailand and Iraq for company in Group A. 
AFC said host Indonesia will be making their debut in this year's edition and would be looking at the tournament as more of a learning experience. 
Indonesia's bid to host this year's championship was also in line with its efforts to promote the game at grass roots level. 
They have embarked on coaching clinics in no less than 11 cities around Indonesia, among them are Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Makassar and Solo to encourage young players from schools, colleges and 
universities to pick up the game. 
The group stage of the tournament ends on Oct 28. The top two teams in each group and the two best third placed teams will qualify for the quarter-finals in this 15-team tournament. The final will be played on Oct 30.
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