MIAMI — Canada has been drawn in a group with Costa Rica, Haiti and Saint Kitts and Nevis or the Dominican Republic at the 2020 CONCACAF Futsal Championship.
The tournament, which runs May 1-10 in Guatemala City, will send four teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean to the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Lithuania.
Canada has not qualified for the Futsal World Cup since the inaugural event in 1989 in the Netherlands, where it failed to advance from the first round after beating Japan and losing to Argentina and Belgium.
Reigning world champion Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Morocco, Egypt, Angola, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Kazakhstan and the Solomon Islands have already qualified for the 2020 World Cup, which runs Sept. 12 to Oct. 4.
The 10-day CONCACAF qualifier will be played in two stages, beginning with a qualifying stage and followed by a championship stage.
The qualifying stage consists of four matchups between the lowest-ranked eight participating teams. The winners advance to the championship group stage, with four four-team pools.
The top two teams in each pool move on to the quarterfinals.
Canada opens May 4 against Haiti before facing Dominican Republic or Saint Kitts and Nevis on May 5 and two-time defending champion Costa Rica on May 6.
The Canadian men finished seventh at the 2012 CONCACAF championship and sixth in 2016, when the tournament featured eight teams.
The Canadians came close to making the quarterfinals in the 2016 qualifier — denied by a 7-4 loss to Cuba.
Canada, whose coach is Kyt Selaidopoulos, will be up against CONCACAF countries that have futsal leagues and futsal-only players.
The indoor game is five-a-side with two 20-minute halves. The clock stops whenever the ball goes out of play or there is a break in play.
Each team starts with one goalkeeper and four outfield players on the pitch, with unlimited substitutions.
The futsal international playing surface can be a maximum of 42 metres long (minimum is 38 metres) and 25 metres wide (minimum 20 metres). The goals measure three metres wide and two metres high.
Brazil has dominated the world futsal scene, winning five of the eight FIFA World Cups. Spain has won twice and finished runner-up to Brazil three times.
Draw for 2020 CONCACAF Futsal Championship
Group A: Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe and Sint Maarten or Martinique.
Group B: Panama, Mexico, Curacao and Suriname or French Guiana.
Group C: Costa Rica, Canada, Haiti and Saint Kitts and Nevis or Dominican Republic.
Group D: Cuba, U.S., El Salvador and Nicaragua or Puerto Rico.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2020.
The Canadian Press