FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup – Europe qualifier is a beach soccer championship that takes place to determine the nations who will represent Europe at the upcoming edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.[1] It is contested between the senior men's national teams of the members of UEFA.

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup – Europe qualifier
Organising bodyBeach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW)
Founded2008 (2008)
RegionEurope (UEFA)
Number of teams~25
Qualifier forFIFA Beach Soccer
World Cup
Current champions Russia (2nd title)
Most successful team(s) Spain (3 titles)
2019 UEFA qualifiers

In 2006, FIFA made qualification to the World Cup mandatory (previously, nations were simply invited).[2] Originally, the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) doubled as Europe's qualification tournament;[3][4] in 2008, this separate championship was created as the European qualification route.[5] FIFA currently allocate Europe five berths at the World Cup[6] and hence the top five teams qualify to the World Cup finals.[see notes] Coinciding with the annual staging of the World Cup, the competition took place yearly until 2010; the World Cup then became biennial, and as its supplementary qualification event, the championship followed suit.

Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) have organised the event since its inception. Europe's governing body for football, UEFA, only began involvement in 2019 – sending delegates and financial support.[7] Unlike the World Cup qualifiers for UEFA in football, it is a knockout tournament with a champion crowned. It's large scale and competitiveness are often noted, making it viewed as a major title to win.[8][9]

Spain are the most successful team with three titles. However, Russia have qualified for the World Cup on the most occasions (six).

Founding

In 2006, FIFA declared that for teams to enter to the World Cup, they now must qualify (previously, most teams entered by invitation).[2] Qualification tournaments were subsequently established in all continental zones, except for Europe.[10] For European teams, a qualification process had already been implemented for the previous handful of World Cups – the top placed teams of the most recent season of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) earned qualification to the upcoming edition of the World Cup.[11] Thus, the EBSL continued to double as the qualifying route for European teams.[3][4]

In 2008, FIFA proclaimed that the next editions of the World Cup would take place in different countries.[12] Until that point, all World Cups had been held in Brazil during summertime of the Southern Hemisphere, months after the conclusion of that year's EBSL season. That year, the World Cup was held in Marseille, France, and during a different time of the year – in July.[12] The usual European qualification route, the EBSL, was not due to conclude until weeks after the World Cup had taken place.[5] This separate knockout tournament, dedicated purely to determining the teams qualifying to the World Cup, was organised instead; free to be placed anywhere in the calendar, it took place in the May.[5] It "made history", becoming the biggest international beach soccer event ever held at the time with 24 participants.[13] It has since returned in all future years as Europe's qualification tournament.[9] The organisers, Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), decided not to revert to using the EBSL.

Results

For all tournaments, the top four teams qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (except for 2009 and 2019, when the top five teams qualified).[9]

Year Location Final Third place play-off Fifth place[lower-alpha 1]
Champions Score Runners-up Third place Score Fourth place
2008
details
Benidorm, Spain
Spain
4–3
Portugal

Russia
4–2
Italy
[note 1]
2009
details
Castellón, Spain
Spain
4–4 (a.e.t.)
(13–12 p.)

Russia

Switzerland
8–6
Portugal

Italy
2010
details
Bibione, Italy
Ukraine
4–2
Portugal

Russia
5–2
Switzerland
[note 1]
2012
details
Moscow, Russia
Spain
5–3
Russia

Ukraine
3–0
Netherlands
[note 2]
2014
details
Jesolo, Italy
Russia
6–5
Switzerland

Italy
5–4
Spain
[note 1]
2016
details
Jesolo, Italy
Poland
6–3
Switzerland

Portugal
8–3
Italy
[note 3]
2019
details
Moscow, Russia
Russia
7–1
Italy

Belarus
6–2
Switzerland

Portugal
2021
details
Jesolo, Italy[23] [note 1]
  1. Only shown when qualified to the World Cup.

^ Notes – The fifth placed team does not always qualify to the World Cup:

  1. The fifth placed team did not qualify to the World Cup because France (2008),[14] Italy (2010),[15] Portugal (2014)[16] and Russia (2021) claimed the fifth European spot automatically as World Cup hosts. Italy took part in the 2010 qualifiers as FIFA had yet to confirm their automatic qualification at the time.[17] France and Portugal[18] did not take part in the respective 2008 and 2015 events in knowing qualification was already secured.
  2. The fifth placed team did not qualify to the World Cup in 2013. Tahiti had already qualified automatically for the World Cup as its host nation, occupying the sole OFC berth available. With the most berths, UEFA were therefore chosen by FIFA to give one of their slots to Oceania to allow an additional second team from the OFC to compete regionally and qualify to the World Cup.[19][20]
  3. The fifth placed team did not qualify to the World Cup in 2017. The Bahamas had already qualified automatically for World Cup as its host nation, occupying one of the two CONCACAF berths available. With the most berths, UEFA were therefore chosen by FIFA to give one of their spots to North America to allow two teams from CONCACAF to compete regionally and qualify to the World Cup as normal.[21][22]

Performance

Successful nations

Team Titles Runners-up Third place Fourth place Total top 4
 Spain 3 (2008*, 2009*, 2012) 1 (2014) 4
 Russia 2 (2014, 2019*) 2 (2009, 2012*) 2 (2008, 2010) 6
 Ukraine 1 (2010) 1 (2012) 2
 Poland 1 (2016) 1
  Switzerland 2 (2014, 2016) 1 (2009) 2 (2010, 2019) 5
 Portugal 2 (2008, 2010) 1 (2016) 1 (2009) 4
 Italy 1 (2019) 1 (2014*) 2 (2008, 2016*) 4
 Belarus 1 (2019) 1
 Netherlands 1 (2012) 1
* Hosts

Awards

Year Top goalscorer(s) Gls Best player Best goalkeeper Ref.
2008 Dejan Stankovic 16 Amarelle Roberto Valeiro
2009 Pasquale Carotenuto 24 Ilya Leonov Andrey Bukhlitskiy
2010 Madjer 16 Ilya Leonov Paulo Graça
2012 Bogusław Saganowski 15 Amarelle Vitalii Sydorenko
2014 Dejan Stankovic 21 Dario Ramacciotti Valentin Jaeggy
2016 Dejan Stankovic 25 Bogusław Saganowski Szymon Gąsiński
2019 Gabriele Gori 14 Yury Krasheninnikov Maxim Chuzhkov

All-time table

As of 2019

Pos Team App Pld W W+ WP L GF GA GD Pts PPG Win %
1 Russia75142108284117+1671282.5184.3
2 Spain750361310287144+1431132.2680.0
3  Switzerland747332012281158+1231032.1974.5
4 Italy74431139227143+84982.2379.5
5 Portugal64130029269110+159922.2478.0
6 Ukraine639260310188118+70812.0874.4
7 Poland744253016186150+36811.8463.6
8 France637190315169149+20601.6259.5
9 Belarus740161419138128+10541.3552.5
10 Azerbaijan739150123140161–21461.1841.0
11 Hungary739122322141168–27431.1043.6
12 Germany732111020104115–11351.0937.5
13 Romania628101116116162–46331.1842.9
14 Czech Republic72811001798146–48331.1839.3
15 Netherlands5221002107388–15321.4554.5
16 Turkey629100019105136–31301.0334.5
17 Greece63181022113143–30260.8429.0
18 Estonia7297012189122–33220.7627.6
19 England6225201558106–48190.8631.8
20 Moldova5224111654129–75150.6827.3
21 Israel31130083748–1190.8227.3
22 Austria41230094264–2290.7525.0
23 Belgium1420021913+661.5050.0
24 Kazakhstan31020082255–3360.6020.0
25 Slovakia3920072661–3560.6722.2
26 Lithuania31020082066–4660.6020.0
27 Norway7222002053116–6360.279.1
28 Latvia516100153194–6330.196.3
29 Denmark130003422–1800.000.0
30 Serbia130003525–2000.000.0
31 Georgia2500051341–2800.000.0
32 Andorra3800081656–4000.000.0
33 Bulgaria515000153186–5500.000.0

Key: Appearances App / Won in normal time W = 3 points / Won in extra-time W+ = 2 points / Won on penalty shoot-out WP = 1 point / Lost L = 0 points / Points per game PPG

Appearances & performance timeline

The following is a performance timeline of the teams who have appeared in the UEFA qualifiers and how many appearances they each have made.

Legend
‡. ^ In some years, teams knocked-out at rounds 2 or 3 played no further matches (these results are marked as R2 or R3).
In other years, classification matches were then played to determine all final placements.
Timeline
Year
Team
2008

(24)
2009

(26)
2011

(27)
2013

(24)
2015

(24)
2017

(28)
2019

(20)
2021

 
Apps
7
 Andorra R1 R1 R1 × × × × 3
 Austria R1 R1 R1 × R1 •• × 4
 Azerbaijan R1 8th R2 R2 13th 8th 8th 7
 Belarus R2 R1 R1 R3 5th 11th 3rd 7
 Belgium × R2 × × × × × 1
 Bulgaria × R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 × 5
 Czech Republic R3 R1 R1 R2 R1 6th R1 7
 Denmark × × × × × R1 × 1
 England R2 R2 R1 R1 12th R1 × 6
 Estonia R2 R2 R2 R1 11th R1 R1 7
 France × 6th R2 R3 14th 7th R2 6
 Georgia R1 × × × •• R1 × 2
 Germany R2 R1 R1 R1 10th 12th R2 7
 Greece R3 R1 R2 R2 16th 14th × 6
 Hungary R2 R1 R3 R3 7th 15th R2 7
 Israel × R2 R1 R2 × × × 3
 Italy 4th 5th R2 R2 3rd 4th 2nd 7
 Kazakhstan × × R1 × × R1 R2 3
 Latvia R1 R1 × R1 R1 × R2 5
 Lithuania R1 × × × × R1 R2 3
 Moldova × × R2 R1 R1 16th R2 5
 Netherlands R1 R2 R2 4th × R1 × 5
 Norway R2 R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 7
 Poland R2 R2 R3 R3 15th 1st 7th 7
 Portugal 2nd 4th 2nd R2 × 3rd 5th 6
 Romania R1 7th R3 R1 8th R1 × 6
 Russia 3rd 2nd 3rd 2nd 1st 5th 1st 7
 Serbia × × × × × R1 × 1
 Slovakia R1 × R1 × R1 × × 3
 Spain 1st 1st R3 1st 4th 9th 6th 7
  Switzerland R3 3rd 4th R2 2nd 2nd 4th 7
 Turkey × R2 R2 R2 9th 13th R2 6
 Ukraine R3 R2 1st 3rd 6th 10th •• 6

Performance of qualifiers at the World Cup

The following is a performance timeline of the UEFA teams who have appeared in the Beach Soccer World Cup since being sanctioned by FIFA in 2005.

Legend
Team \ Years
2005[†]

2006[†]

2007[†]

2008

2009

2011

2013

2015

2017

2019

2021
Total
 BelarusR11
 France1st3rd4thQF4
 ItalyR1R12ndQFQF4th4th2nd8
 NetherlandsR11
 PolandR1R12
 Portugal2nd4thQF3rd3rd3rd1stQF1st9
 RussiaR1QFQF1st1st3rd3rdq8
 SpainQFR1QF4thQF2ndR17
  Switzerland2ndR1QFQFQF5
 UkraineQFR1R13
Total no. of unique qualifiers10
Notes
  1. ^
    In 2005, 2006 and 2007, the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup were determined by the Euro Beach Soccer League:

References

  1. REGULATIONS; FIFA BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP 2011; QUALIFIER BIBIONE. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  2. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2006 qualifiers to start in Brazil on 5 March". FIFA. 3 March 2006. Archived from the original on 13 May 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  3. Spain back among the best. FIFA.com. 26 August 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  4. Russians heading for Rio. FIFA.com. 23 August 2007. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  5. Евролига и Кубок Мира разошлись... [The Euroleague and the World Cup have parted ways ...] (in Russian). beachsoccer.ru. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 29 Octboer 2020.
  6. "World Cup gets bigger". FIFA. 25 August 2005. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  7. "Алаев: пляжный футбол движется под зонтик УЕФА, процесс начался" [Alaev: beach soccer moves under the UEFA umbrella, the process has begun] (in Russian). Beach Soccer Russia. 18 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  8. Moscow to pass World Cup sentence. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 19 April 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  9. Сверхъестественный отбор. Как в Европе сражаются за путёвки на чемпионат мира (in Russian). Beach Soccer Russia. 12 July 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  10. Tahiti hosts OFC qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2006. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 23 March 2006. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  11. "BSWW – What". beachsoccer.com. 2001. Archived from the original on 9 April 2001. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  12. Marseille: see you next year. FIFA.com. 28 August 2007. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  13. Spanish Castellón to host Beach Soccer European Qualifier. Banderas News. February 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  14. Презентация отборочного турнира в Бенидорме. (in Russian). beachsoccer.ru. 21 February 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  15. FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2011 - Qualifier Bibione ready to start. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 10 July 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  16. FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2015 - Europe Qualifier Jesolo. Beach Soccer Worldwide. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  17. Fifa World Cup Qualifier: a Bibione in palio quattro posti per il Mondiale (in Italian). Italian Football Federation. 9 July 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  18. UM CAMINHO QUE NOS É FAVORÁVEL (in Portuguese). Futebol de Praia Portugal. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  19. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Tahiti 2013 – slot allocation" (PDF). FIFA.com. 31 May 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  20. "The road to Tahiti 2013 begins". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  21. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 – slot allocation" (PDF). FIFA.com. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  22. "Лихачёв: не понимаю, почему Европа снова должна страдать" [Likhachev: I don't understand why Europe should suffer again] (in Russian). Beach Soccer Russia. 29 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  23. "El Covid-19 amenaza también al fútbol playa" (in Spanish). Diari de Tarragona. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
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