Azernews.Az

Laman Ismayilova

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On December 26, a minute of silence will be observed before the start of the eighth round matches of the Futsal Higher League and the preliminary stage of the Azerbaijan Cup, Azernews reports.

The matches will begin with a minute of silence due to the tragic accident involving an "Embraer 190" passenger plane, which was performing the Baku-Grozny flight and crashed near the city of Aktau, resulting in numerous human casualties.

Notably, futsal is a ball sport played on a hard court, smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football.

The game is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the goalkeeper. Unlike some other forms of indoor football, the game is played on a hard court surface delimited by lines; walls or boards are not used.

Azerbaijan had never qualified for the FIFA Futsal World Cup until 2016. However, national futsal players participated in the last five editions of the European Championship.

Now the futsal team successfully represents Azerbaijan at multiple international futsal competitions such as the FIFA Futsal World Cup and the European Championships.

The team was ranked 14th in the world, the highest-ranking team from Caucasus in the World Rankings.