FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Founded	1995
Region	International (FIFA)
Number of teams	16 (Finals)
Current champions	Brazil
Most successful team	Brazil (13 titles)
Website	www.fifa.com/beachsoccerworldcup/
2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the members of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament has taken place every year since it's establishment in 1995, when it was originally governed by Beach Soccer World Wide and was called Beach Soccer World Championship. Due to the sport's rapid growth, FIFA have re-organised the competition to take place once every two years to allow continental tournaments to flourish without the burden of the world cup qualifiers, crowding the schedule. The sports growing popularity has also meant the world cup will now take place outside Brazil, with the first world cup to do so in 2008.

The current format of the tournament involves 16 teams competing for the title at one venue within the host nation over a period of about a week.

During the 15 tournaments that have been held, only three nations have won, with Brazil domination the world cup, winning 13 of the 15. Brazil are the current champions, after beating Switzerland 10-5 in the 2009 final. The other two champions are Portugal and France. The next world cup will be held in Rome, Italy, in 2011.

History

Foundation

The first Beach Soccer World Cup was held in Brazil, in 1995, organised by the founders of the standardised rules, Beach Soccer Worldwide, held under the title Beach Soccer World Championship. Eight teams were selected to take part, without going through a qualification process. However Brazil, the hosts, dominated and easily won the cup without losing a game. The tournament was successful and BSWW announced that the competition would take place every year.

Growth worldwide

By 1997, more teams had already stated their interest in participating and therefore BSWW extended their selection to 10 teams for 1998. Brazil continued to dominate, despite this change. Immediately, BSWW extended to 12 teams for 1999, spreading their selection across five continents, introducing more new teams to the tournament. However with all these changes it still took until the 2001 World Cup for Brazil to lose the title after winning the competition six years on the run since the establishment. It was Portugal who won the tournament, with Brazil finishing in a disappointing fourth place.

Brazil national beach soccer team: 13 times winners and current world champions

With this change of champions, more countries thought there was a chance for themselves to win the tournament and this sparked more interest worldwide. Not surprisingly, Brazil reclaimed their title in 2002, when BSWW reduced the number of contestants back to eight. The last Beach Soccer World Championship to be organised purely by BSWW was in 2004 when twelve teams played, seven from Europe.

FIFA Era

In 2005, FIFA paired up with BSWW to co-organise the World Cup, although FIFA seem to have the most control. They kept the tradition of holding the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro and continued to allow 12 teams to participate, following on from the 2004 competition. It was Eric Cantona's France that won the competition, after beating Portugal on penalties in the final. The tournament was deemed a major success and therefore FIFA took advantage. For the 2006 competition and beyond, FIFA decided to standardise the participants to 16 countries. It was then that the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers were also established, that would take place throughout the year. Again this decision was a successful one and more countries became interested in a now standard FIFA competition.

A scene from the 2007 event in Brazil

Extending the World Cup

By the end of the 2007 World Cup, the tournament had become very popular throughout the world, thanks to the highly respected FIFA board taking over the competition, influencing more countries to take beach soccer more seriously as a major sport. Since the World Cup had become a success worldwide, FIFA decided to have a change of venue. It was voted, to extend the sport's popularity, the 2008 World Cup would take place in Marseille, France, and the 2009 World Cup would take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. These tournaments would be the first to take place outside Brazil. The 2008 competition was once again a major success, despite being held in a different country. This was the first time that Brazil would have to qualify for the tournament, since they weren't the hosts. However Brazil won the qualifiers and the World Cup in July. The 2009 World Cup in Dubai was an even bigger success, as the second competition outside Brazil and the Beach Soccer World Cup's 15th birthday, Brazil continued their dominance.

Two year basis

Just before the final of the 2009 world cup, FIFA announced that a new format would see the world cup now take place every two years, starting from the 2011 world cup. FIFA justified the decision by stating that they wanted confederations to have more time to develop the sport, therefore allowing a year in between world cups for confederations to organise their own local tournaments. This was a mutual decision between confederations and FIFA.^[1] In March 2010 FIFA confirmed that the 2011 world cup would take place in Italy and the 2013 world cup would take place in Tahiti. ^[2]

Qualification

From 1995 to 2005 (inclusive), teams were selected for the World Cup; they did not have to qualify. However with the interest from so many countries, FIFA decided to standardise the format for the World Cup in 2006 for future World Cups. FIFA agreed that countries from each confederation will play in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers, with 16 teams eventually qualifying for the finals. The number of countries qualifying from each confederation would always be the same as the table shows below:

Qualification continues to be the same. Note that the host countries' continent loses one qualification spot. E.g. since the 2011 World Cup is in Italy, they automatically qualify as an European team. Therefore in the Euro Beach Soccer Word Cup Qualifiers, only four teams will qualify to join the hosts, Italy.

Results

For a full list of FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup finals, see here: List of FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup finals

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Two Yearly Basis

Year	Location	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Player of the tournament	Top goalscorer(s)	Best goalkeeper	Goals (average per game)
2013 Details	French Polynesia
2011 Details	Rome, Italy

Yearly Basis

Year	Location	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Player of the tournament	Top goalscorer(s)	Best goalkeeper	Goals (average per game)
2009 Details	Jumeirah Beach, Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Brazil	Switzerland	Portugal	Uruguay	Dejan Stankovic (SUI)	16 goals Dejan Stankovic (SUI)	Mão (BRA)	269 (8.7)
2008 Details	Plage du Prado, Marseille, France	Brazil	Italy	Portugal	Spain	Amarelle (ESP)	13 goals Madjer (POR)	Roberto Valeiro (ESP)	258 (8.3)
2007 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Mexico	Uruguay	France	Buru (BRA)	10 goals Buru (BRA)		249 (7.8)
2006 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Uruguay	France	Portugal	Madjer (POR)	21 goals Madjer (POR)		286 (8.9)
2005 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	France	Portugal	Brazil	Japan	Madjer (POR)	12 goals Madjer (POR)		164 (8.2)

Beach Soccer World Championship

Year	Location	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Player of the tournament	Top goalscorer(s)	Best goalkeeper	Goals (average per game)
2004 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Spain	Portugal	Italy	Jorginho (BRA)	12 goals Madjer (POR)	Roberto (ESP)	155 (7.8)
2003 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Spain	Portugal	France	Amarelle (ESP)	15 goals Neném (BRA)	Robertinho (BRA)	150 (9.4)
2002 Details	Vitória (Espírito Santo) and Guarujá (São Paulo), Brazil	Brazil	Portugal	Uruguay	Thailand	Neném (BRA)	9 goals Neném (BRA) Madjer (POR) Nico (URU)	Normcharoen (THA)	145 (9.1)
2001 Details	Costa do Sauípe, Bahia, Brazil	Portugal	France	Argentina	Brazil	Hernâni (POR)	10 goals Alan (POR)	Olmeta (FRA)	144 (7.2)
2000 Details	Marina da Glória, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Peru	Spain	Japan	Júnior (BRA)	13 goals Júnior (BRA)	Kato (JPN)	172 (8.6)
1999 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Portugal	Uruguay	Peru	Jorginho (BRA)	10 goals Júnior (BRA) Matosas (URU)	Pedro Crespo (POR)	186 (9.3)
1998 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	France	Uruguay	Peru	Júnior (BRA)	14 goals Júnior (BRA)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	219 (9.1)
1997 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Uruguay	United States	Argentina	Júnior (BRA)	11 goals Júnior (BRA) Venancio Ramos (URU)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	144 (9.0)
1996 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Uruguay	Italy	United States	Edinho (BRA)	14 goals Altobelli (ITA)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	131 (8.2)
1995 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	United States	England	Italy	Zico (BRA) Júnior (BRA)	12 goals Zico (BRA) Altobelli (ITA)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	149 (9.3)

Successful national teams

In all, 38 nations have played in at least one World Beach Soccer Cup. Of these, only three nations have successfully won the World Cup in 15 years. Brazil have won 13 World Cups and clearly dominate. Portugal, who eliminated Brazil both years they did not win, won in 2001. France won in the first FIFA sanctioned tournament in 2005. Both Brazil and Uruguay are the only nations to have played in every World Cup to date.

Map of each countries best performance in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
Brazil	13 (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)	-	1 (2005)	1 (2001)
Portugal	1 (2001)	3 (1999, 2002, 2005)	4 (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009)	1 (2006)
France	1 (2005)	2 (1998, 2001)	1 (2006)	2 (2003, 2007)
Uruguay	-	3 (1996, 1997, 2006)	4 (1998, 1999, 2002, 2007)	1 (2009)
Spain	-	2 (2003, 2004)	1 (2000)	1 (2008)
Italy	-	1 (2008)	1 (1996)	2 (1995, 2004)
United States	-	1 (1995)	1 (1997)	1 (1996)
Peru	-	1 (2000)	-	2 (1998, 1999)
Mexico	-	1 (2007)	-	-
Switzerland	-	1 (2009)	-	-
Argentina	-	-	1 (2001)	1 (1997)
England	-	-	1 (1995)	-
Japan	-	-	-	2 (2000, 2005)
Thailand	-	-	-	1 (2002)

Tournament appearances as of 2009

Since the tournament's establishment in 1995, as of the 2009 World Cup, 38 different countries have participated over the 15 competitions. However only two countries have successfully participated in all World Cups, which are Brazil and Uruguay. Surprisingly, Uruguay have never won the trophy, whereas Brazil have won 13 of the 15. European teams have dominated in appearances by continent, since 14 of the 38 different countries have been from Europe. Since qualification has been standardised, fewer new countries are expected to make an appearance.

Map of the countries that have appeared in any World Cup

Appearances	Country
15	Brazil  Uruguay
13	Italy  Portugal
12	Argentina  France  Spain  United States
9	Japan
5	Peru
4	Germany  Russia  Solomon Islands
3	Canada  Iran  Nigeria  United Arab Emirates
2	Bahrain  Cameroon  El Salvador  Mexico  Senegal  Switzerland  South Africa  Thailand  Venezuela
1	Australia  Belgium  Chile  Costa Rica  Côte d'Ivoire  Denmark  England  Malaysia  Netherlands  Poland  Turkey  Ukraine

References

External links

• History at FIFA.com
• The Beach Soccer Championships

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