The preliminary round draws for the UEFA European qualifying competition for the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024 was held on Tuesday with Malta being drawn in Group B along with Norway, Denmark and Cyprus.

The tournament will be played between April 4 and 13, 2022 in Norway.

In total this early stage of competition will involve 24 teams playing in six mini-tournaments for 12 places in the main round. The top two teams in each group progress to the main round group stage to join the 24 nations entering in that round: Spain, Russia, Portugal (holders), Kazakhstan, Croatia, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Italy, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Finland, Romania, Slovakia, Georgia, Belarus, Netherlands, Hungary, France, Belgium, Latvia, North Macedonia.

Malta was due to host Cyprus in two friendly matches in the second week of March but these have now been cancelled.

Preliminary round draw

Group A: Montenegro, Germany (hosts), San Marino, Gibraltar

Group B: Norway (hosts), Denmark, Cyprus, Malta

Group C: Kosovo, Armenia, Bulgaria (hosts), Scotland

Group D: Turkey, Israel, Lithuania (hosts), Northern Ireland

Group E: Albania, Sweden (hosts), Andorra, Austria

Group F: Moldova (hosts), Greece, Switzerland, Estonia