2006 Euro Beach Soccer League

The 2006 Euro Beach Soccer League was the ninth edition of the Beach Soccer league held over a number of dates between June 2 and August 28. The overall winners of the competition was Spain. This tournament also determined the five nations which qualified to the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, as the competition acted as the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers.^[1]

Division B

Overview

The competition started off in early June with those teams in division B competing against each other being Switzerland, Ukraine, Greece, Germany, Poland, England, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands. These nine teams played each other in three different events between 2 June and 2 July 2006. When the events had been completed, the nations were put into a final table of division B, with the team in ninth place being eliminated from the tournament, which was Germany. The remaining eight teams moved on to a knockout stage were four nations eventually qualified to move up into division A, taking place later on in the month. The successful teams were Switzerland, Ukraine, Greece and Poland.

Final table

This is the final table of division B with the successful nations in the knockout stage highlighted. Since one round of games were cancelled, the positions in the group were decided on average points, not total points gained.

Division A

Overview

Division A started on 24 June with the four teams promoted from division B competing with Spain, France, Portugal and Italy. The eight teams competed in four different stages, in straight knockout tournaments. After the stages were completed on 19 August, the final table was organised.

At the end of every stage, nations were awarded points for were they finished in that stage as follows:

Final table

These points were then tallied up to create the final division A table. The nations in seventh and eight were eliminated from the competition whilst the top six teams moved on into the superfinal of the 2006 Euro Beach Soccer league.

Superfinal

Overview

The superfinal, held in Marseille, France between 22 August and 26 August, was contested between the top six teams of division A. The nations were split up into two groups of three, playing once against each other in the group. When the matches had been played, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Poland made it to the semi-finals, with Spain being the eventual winners of the 2006 Euro Beach Soccer League, claiming their fifth title. These four teams also secured their places in the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup by finishing in the top four.

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Winners

Last chance bracket

Overview

Since five berths were allocated to European teams in the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, there was still one more qualifying spot to be filled. This involved bringing back the teams from division B who did not make it to division A, those knocked out in division A after the four stages had been played, the teams that were knocked out in the group stage of the superfinal and four wild-card entries to make up the numbers.

First, the wild-cards played those unsuccessful in division B. The winners of these matches then played those who did not make it to the superfinal from division A, and those who did not make it to the knockout stage of the superfinal, as these teams received a bye from the first round. Eventually, it was France and Switzerland who made the final, with France winning 5–1, claiming the final fifth spot in the world cup, later that year.

Knockout

Notes:

A ^ WC indicates a wild-card entry into the last chance bracket – (these teams had not competed in the 2006 Euro Beach Soccer League until this point)

B ^ DB stands for the Division B final table position

C ^ Russia withdrew from the competition, therefore England had a walkover into the quarter-finals

D ^ DA stands for the Division A final table position

E ^ This team finished in 3rd in group A of the second stage of the superfinal

F ^ This team finished in 3rd in group B of the second stage of the superfinal

Teams qualifying to the world cup

The following are the nations who successfully qualified for the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, through being successful in the 2006 Euro Beach Soccer league:

References