Classification will be used to determine the seeded teams in future editions of the World Championships
Portugal occupies second place in the men’s hierarchy and third in the women’s hierarchy in the first FIFA futsal world rankings, which are led by Brazil.
In the men’s category, Portugal, the reigning European and World champion, has 1,527.61 points, only surpassed by Brazil, with 1,568.41, while Spain completes the podium, with 1,514.42.
Brazil has won five of the nine editions of the World Championship, which Portugal won, in an unprecedented way, in 2021, being the title holder, in addition to being two-time European champion.
Spain was World Champion on two occasions and runner-up on three, in addition to being European Champion seven times.
In women, Brazil stands out with seven South American championships, followed by Spain, three-time European champion and Portugal, which lost the last two continental editions to its Iberian rival.
With the first women’s World Cup taking place only in 2025, the Brazilians have 1,364.74 points, the Spanish 1,302.33 and the Portuguese 1,266.33.
The “exponential growth of futsal in recent years” led FIFA to the “logical step” of creating these rankings, being the first time that the organization has launched men’s and women’s rankings at the same time.
The World Cup in Lithuania, which Portugal won in 2021, attracted an average audience of 2.42 million viewers per game, an increase of 130% compared to the previous edition in Colombia2016.
Portugal will defend the title this year, in Uzbekistan, with the draw taking place on May 26th in Samarkand.
According to FIFA, this initial ranking was based on statistics compiled from more than 4,600 international matches.
This ranking will be used to determine the teams that will be seeded in all future editions of the World Championship.
By Lusa
