FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is a bi-annual international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament has taken place every year since its establishment in 1995, when it was originally supervised by Beach Soccer World Wide (BSWW) and was called the Beach Soccer World Championship. Due to the sport's rapid growth, FIFA took over the organization of the competition in 2005 and rebranded it as an official FIFA tournament. As of 2009, the tournament takes place every two years to allow continental tournaments to flourish without the burden of the World Cup qualifiers crowding the schedule. The growing global popularity of beach soccer resulted in FIFA's decision to move the stage of the World Cup from Brazil, its native home, to other parts of the globe. The first edition held outside Brazil was in 2008 in Marseille, France.

The current format of the tournament lasts over a week and involves 16 teams competing initially in four groups of four teams. The group winners and runners-up advance to a series of knockout stages until the final. The losing semifinalist teams play each other in a 3rd place play-off match to determine the third-placed team. The most recent edition, the 2011 World Cup, was held in Ravenna, Italy, and crowned Russia as champions for the first time, after defeating the defending champions Brazil by 12–8.

From the 16 tournaments held so far, only four nations have taken the title. Brazil is the leading and dominant national team, having won 13 titles. The other three champions are Portugal, in 2001, France, in 2005 and Russia, 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.

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.

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 was held in Italy, they automatically qualified as a European team. Therefore in the Euro Beach Soccer Word Cup Qualifiers, only four teams qualified to join the hosts, Italy.

Results

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups

Two Yearly Basis

Yearly Basis

Beach Soccer World Championships

Successful national teams

In all, 38 nations have played in at least one World Beach Soccer Cup. Of these, only four 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. Brazil and Uruguay are the only nations to have played in every World Cup to date.

Tournament appearances as of 2011

Since the tournament's establishment in 1995, as of the 2011 World Cup, 40 different countries have participated over the 16 competitions. However only one country have successfully participated in all World Cups, which is Brazil, whereas have won 13 of the 15 competitions. European teams have dominated in appearances by continent, since 14 of the 40 different countries have been from Europe. Since qualification has been standardised, fewer new countries are expected to make an appearance.

References

External links

• History at FIFA.com
• The Beach Soccer Championships