Time to rethink the formats of futsal competitions? 🔍

It's happened again...

First of all lets rewind back to the 2024 Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan. France were playing Iran and they had both secured their position in the knockout rounds. What was yet to be determined was their knockout opponent.

The performance of both teams was visibily lacklustre (I recommend watching it back) and criticism was made by individuals all over the futsal community.

Thailand's coach, Miguel Rodrigo, condemned the actions, stating, "Iran and France, coaches and players alike, have disgraced my sport. You are a disgrace to the world" . Retired Brazilian futsal star Falcao also expressed dismay, suggesting the match lacked respect for the competition.

What followed next was an investigation by FIFA into the allegations. “FIFA is aware of complaints filed by participating teams at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024 regarding the Group F match between France and IR Iran," a FIFA spokesperson said in a statement. An outcome is still outstanding at the time that this article will be published.

Fast forward to today, comparisons have been drawn in the recent match in the 2025 AFC Womens Futsal Asian Cup between Iran and Vietnam, with Futsal Instagram page 55 Futsal deeming it as a "Fake Match".

Given the prestigious offering of potentially qualifying for the first ever women's world cup.

I'd ask the question, would you not do the same?

Given both were attempting to avoid Japan in the next round it would only increase their chances of securing a spot in the world cup but also the chance of making the final of the AFC Women's Asian Cup.

Now it's surely time to talk solutions, if I am not mistaken we usually work around this in football settings by having matches conclude at multiple times - making it very difficult to plan where a team can finish in a group stage. However, given that a single venue is sometimes used and that games do not tend to occur simultaneously perhaps we ought to think about having a draw when the group stages are concluded. That way teams will have no choice but to perform at the proper level in order to get the best gaurantee that they will be seeded in a strong position.

What do you think? How do we put an end to these kind of games in futsal on the international stage?