Teams set for football 5 Euro Challenge Cup

Six national teams will be taking the field on the second edition of this event, which will start on 3 May in Thessaloniki, Greece. 02 May 2016

Moldova vs Romania at the 1st IBSA Euro Challenge Cup in Prague in 2014.

ⒸIBSA

By IPC/IBSA

Albania, Belarus, Georgia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania will be taking centre stage at the second edition of the football 5-a-side Euro Challenge Cup in Thessaloniki, Greece, which starts on 3 May.

The tournament is aimed at emerging blind football countries in Europe and will be held as part of the UEFA-funded IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe in conjunction with the Thessaloniki International Blind Football Tournament 2016.

Albania will make its international debut, whilst Hungary, Belarus, Moldova and Romania do have some previous experience. Georgia is ranked 29 in the world, being the top team among the ones which will participate in the Euro Challenge.

The first edition of this competition took place from 10-12 July 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic, being Belgium crowned as champion after defeating the host team 2-0.

“This is a great opportunity for us to improve our skills, to learn and to get useful information from IBSA’s football 5 experts and official referees,” said Hungary’s coach, Forgács Szabolcs.

The tournament will be conducted at the same time as the 2016 Thessaloniki International Blind Football Tournament, in which Paralympic qualifiers Turkey, Russia and Morocco and France's club teams Blind Sports Union Pirsos and Girondins de Bordeaux will participate.