TEHRAN - Farzaneh Tavasoli, captain and goalkeeper of Iran women’s national futsal team, believes that the 2023 CAFA tournament will serve as a tune-up for major tournaments like the AFC Women's Futsal Asian Cup.

Iran women’s futsal team started their training camp on Saturday. Forouzan Soleymani, head coach of the national team, called 20 players, including Farzaneh Tavasoli, for the current camp to prepare her side for the 2023 CAFA Women's Futsal Championship.

“We joined the training camp just after the recent matches of Iran’s women futsal super league,” said Tavasoli in her exclusive interview with Tehran Times.

“Our last camp was one year ago for the previous edition of the CAFA tournament. Since then, we haven't had any training camp or matches, and this is the first time the players are coming together,” she added.

The experienced Iran international goalie shared her view about the new coach of the national team.

“Ms Solyamani is one of the well-known and experienced women futsal coaches in Iran. She won the 2015 Asian Cup with the national team and is familiar with the condition of the international tournaments,”

“Most of the players who have been called to the national team by Ms Forouzan, are among the best of the super league. There is a good mixture of young talents and experienced star among them,” Tavasoli added.

Some experts have questioned the invitation of star players by the head coach of the women’s national team for the 2023 CAFA tournament, which is considered an easy tournament for the Iran national team.

Tavasoli defends the head coach’s decision, saying, “I agree that the CAFA tournament could be an opportunity for the younger players to experience playing at international tournament, but it could be the case in a normal condition. Don’t forget that there is more than one year that the national team have not participated in any tournaments and even there were no friendly matches for us. So, the current training camp and the 2023 CAFA can serve as a tune-up for the upcoming major competitions such as the Asian Cup.”

The 2023 CAFA Women's Futsal Championship will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from Jan. 25 to 31. Iran are the defending champions, having won the 2022 inaugural edition.

Iran futsal team are scheduled to face Kyrgyzstan on Jan. 27 in their opener.

Team Melli will also play Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on Jan. 28 and 30, respectively.

“Definitely Iran national team are expected to win the tournament again and the players and technical staff will do their best to win the trophy in Uzbekistan. However, we have a difficult task ahead because the host country has a very good team and will make a tough challenge for us,” the goalkeeper added.

The 2023 CAFA Women's Futsal Championship will be the second edition of CAFA Women's Futsal Championship, the annual international futsal championship organized by CAFA for the women's national futsal teams of Central Asia.