England’s Futsal head coach Michael Skubala has named his squad for the World Cup qualifying main round in late October.
The Futsal Lions travel to Italy for the latest stage on the road to the World Cup Finals in Lithuania next year and will face games against the host nation, Belarus and Hungary.
And Skubala will have a 16-man squad for the games, which are held in Eboli at the impressive 8000-capacity PalaSele venue.
FIND OUT ABOUT THE NATIONAL FUTSAL SERIESThe most notable absentee from the squad is Stuart Cook, who recently suffered an ACL injury and is sidelined for the rest of the season.
But that absence has opened the door to the returning Agon Rexha, who will be hopeful to play some part in the tournament.
England progressed through the preliminary qualifying round in Latvia in February thanks to wins over Gibraltar and Cyprus and a draw with the hosts.
Only the top two nations will progress from this stage into the elite qualifying round which takes place in early 2020.
“We know this is going to be a very tough tournament for us all, but we’re very excited to hit the challenge head on,” said Skubala.
“We know our opposition teams are over 25 places above us in the world rankings, but we’re prepared and we’ll do our best and hopefully make the Futsal community proud.
“The players have worked really hard over the last few months to be in a position to challenge and compete and you never know, we could cause a bit of an upset if a few things do drop our way.
“It’s great for the national futsal programme to be competing at this level of competition.
“For young budding football and Futsal players to have this to aspire to is great.
“Italy have always got to latter stages of FIFA Futsal World Cups and been Euro champions in the past, so to be playing three teams with strong national Futsal backgrounds in competition is great on so many levels.”
England will kick-off their games against Hungary on Thursday 24 October, before playing Italy the following day. Their final match against Belarus will be played on Sunday 27 October.
The Squad
Mark Croft - Loughborough Students Futsal Club
Jonny Sim - Pro Futsal London
Joe Payne - Bolton Futsal Club
Raoni Medina - London Helvecia Futsal Club
Robbie Bettson - Durham University Futsal Club
Liam Palfreeman - ASD Olimpus Roma
Doug Reed - London Helvecia Futsal Club
James Webb - Gambette Futsal Club
Richard Ward - Pro Futsal London
Nathan Davis - Loughborough Students Futsal Club
William Wallace - ASD Lubrisol Futsal Regalbuto
Russell Goldstein - Pro Futsal London
Will Rooke - Loughborough Students Futsal Club
Matt Overton - Bolton Futsal Club
Agon Rexha - London Helvecia Futsal Club
Calvin Dickson - Pro Futsal London
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