FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Founded	1995 (1995) (rebranded in 2005)
Region	International (FIFA)
Number of teams	16 (finals) 83 (2017 qualification)
Current champions	Brazil (5th title, 14th overall)
Most successful team(s)	Brazil (5 titles, 14 overall)
Website	FIFA
2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

A scene from the 2006 World Cup
World Championships (pre-FIFA)
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body.

The tournament was established in 1995 as the Beach Soccer World Championship, taking place every year for the next decade under the supervision of Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) and its predecessors. Due to the sport's rapid growth, FIFA took an interest in the sport, and as the main tournament in world beach soccer, it joined hands with BSWW in 2005 to take over the organization of the competition, re-branding it as an official FIFA tournament. Since 2009, the tournament has taken place every two years to allow continental tournaments to flourish without the burden of the World Cup qualifiers crowding the schedule every 12 months. The growing global popularity of beach soccer resulted in FIFA's decision to move the stage of the World Cup from its native home in Brazil to other parts of the globe to capitalise on and continue to stimulate global interest. The first edition held outside Brazil was in 2008 in Marseille, France.

The current tournament format lasts over approximately 10 days and involves 16 teams initially competing in four groups of four teams. The group winners and runners-up advance to a series of knock-out stages until the champion is crowned. The losing semi-finalists play each other in a play-off match to determine the third and fourth-placed teams.

The most recent edition was held in Nassau, Bahamas, and crowned Brazil as champions for the fourteenth time – fifth under the patronage of FIFA – after defeating Tahiti 6–0 in the final.

History

Foundation

The first Beach Soccer World Cup was held in Brazil, in 1995, organised by the precursors to the modern-day 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, with the FIFA board taking over the competition, driving more countries to recognize beach soccer 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

Pre-2006

From 1995 until 2005 there was no standard qualification system for nations to go through to earn a place at the World Cup finals. The process in which teams gained entry into the finals was inconsistent from one year to the next throughout the confederations, often down to a simple invite to participate in the finals from BSWW, or potentially qualification by reaching the latter stages in a premier regional tournament with no prior ties with the World Cup, or perhaps by performing well in the previous World Cup.

During this period, nations from Africa, Asia and sometimes North America were the usual recipients of invitations, due to a lack of regional tournaments for BSWW to determine who was best in said region and worthy to play in the finals. Typically, European nations qualified by doing well in the Euro Beach Soccer League and South American nations in the Americas' League, sometimes jointly with North American nations who also qualified along with them in such circumstances. It was still common for other 'wild-card' European and South American nations to receive invites despite not performing well continentally. However, during the early years of the championships, invitation was the common form of eligibility for all nations.

2006 onwards

Following the success of the inaugural FIFA tournament in 2005, the number of teams at the finals was increased by FIFA to a record 16 and so the governing body along with BSWW met with individual confederations to set up a standard qualifying process for each world cup, by establishing regional championships for each continent. The winners of these championships would be crowned the best team in the region, promoting regional competitiveness, and most importantly act as a consistent method of qualification to the World Cup for the best teams of each confederation. This would also help increase the sport's awareness across all corners of the globe and make sure all confederations were represented at the finals at every following World Cup, unlike in the past.

Besides Europe, who continued to use the Euro Beach Soccer League as the method of World Cup qualification until 2008, all other confederations hosted their first championships in 2006 in view of the finals later that year.

Attendance

The allocation of World Cup spots and hence how many teams qualify from their regional championship to the World Cup was decided by FIFA in 2006 as follows:

Confederation	Continent	Qualifying tournament	Amount of qualifying nations		Participating teams in qualification rounds
					2006	2007	2008	2009	2011	2013	2015	2017
UEFA	Europe	FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)	5 teams		17[A]	22[A]	24	26	27	24	24	28
CONMEBOL	South America	CONMEBOL Beach Soccer Championship	3 teams		6	3	7	8	9	9	10	10
AFC	Asia	AFC Beach Soccer Championship	3 teams		6	6	6	7	11	16	15	14
CAF	Africa	Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations	2 teams		6	8	8	9	9	8	20	15
CONCACAF	North, Central America and the Caribbean	CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship	2 teams		5	4	4	6	8	10	16	16
OFC	Oceania	OFC Beach Soccer Championship	1 team		4	4	–	4	3	3	–	–
		Total	16 teams		44	47	49	50	67	70	85	83

^ As part of the Euro Beach Soccer League

The host country's continent loses one qualification spot. I.e. since the 2015 World Cup was held in Portugal, they automatically qualified taking up one of the five European spots. Therefore, in the 2015 UEFA qualifiers, only four teams qualified from the championships to join the hosts making the total of five European nations.

As shown in the table, attendance of nations in qualification tournaments continues to rise year on year with five confederations having over 10 participants in qualifying for the first time in 2015 and the total global number of participants has nearly doubled since 2006. However 2017 saw a drop in participation from the previous tournament for the first time.

Despite being the premier tournament in most regions, since the primary objective is to qualify to the World Cup, on a rare occasion teams have not bothered to participate due to qualifying to the finals automatically as hosts such as Brazil deferring from the 2007 CONMBEBOL Beach Soccer Championship and Tahiti in the 2013 OFC Beach Soccer Championship.

Results

Beach Soccer World Championship

Year	Location		Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place		Number of teams	Best player	Top goalscorer(s)	Best goalkeeper	Goals scored (avg. per game)
1995 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	United States	England	Italy		8	Zico (BRA) Júnior (BRA)	12 goals Zico (BRA) Altobelli (ITA)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	149 (9.3)
1996 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Uruguay	Italy	United States		8	Edinho (BRA)	14 goals Altobelli (ITA)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	131 (8.2)
1997 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Uruguay	United States	Argentina		8	Júnior (BRA)	11 goals Júnior (BRA) Ramos (URU)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	144 (9.0)
1998 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	France	Uruguay	Peru		10	Júnior (BRA)	14 goals Júnior (BRA)	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	218 (9.1)
1999 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Portugal	Uruguay	Peru		12	Jorginho (BRA)	10 goals Júnior (BRA) Matosas (URU)	Pedro Crespo (POR)	174 (8.7)
2000 Details	Marina da Glória, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Peru	Spain	Japan		12	Júnior (BRA)	13 goals Júnior (BRA)	Eichi Kato (JPN)	172 (8.6)
2001 Details	Costa do Sauípe, Bahia, Brazil		Portugal	France	Argentina	Brazil		12	Hernâni (POR)	10 goals Alan (POR)	Pascal Olmeta (FRA)	144 (7.2)
2002 Details	Vitória, Espírito Santo and Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil		Brazil	Portugal	Uruguay	Thailand		8	Neném (BRA)	9 goals Neném (BRA) Madjer (POR) Nico (URU)	Vilarb Nomcharoen (THA)	145 (9.1)
2003 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Spain	Portugal	France		8	Amarelle (ESP)	15 goals Neném (BRA)	Robertinho (BRA)	150 (9.4)
2004 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Spain	Portugal	Italy		12	Jorginho (BRA)	12 goals Madjer (POR)	Roberto Valeiro (ESP)	155 (7.8)

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Year	Location		Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place		Number of teams	Best player	Top goalscorer(s)	Best goalkeeper	Goals scored (avg. per game)
2005 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		France	Portugal	Brazil	Japan		12	Madjer (POR)	12 goals Madjer (POR)	—	164 (8.2)
2006 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Uruguay	France	Portugal		16	Madjer (POR)	21 goals Madjer (POR)	—	286 (8.9)
2007 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	Mexico	Uruguay	France		16	Buru (BRA)	10 goals Buru (BRA)	—	261 (8.2)
2008 Details	Plages du Prado, Marseille, France		Brazil	Italy	Portugal	Spain		16	Amarelle (ESP)	13 goals Madjer (POR)	Roberto Valeiro (ESP)	258 (8.3)
2009 Details	Jumeirah Beach, Dubai, United Arab Emirates		Brazil	Switzerland	Portugal	Uruguay		16	Dejan Stankovic (SUI)	16 goals Dejan Stankovic (SUI)	Mão (BRA)	269 (8.7)
2011 Details	Marina di Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy		Russia	Brazil	Portugal	El Salvador		16	Ilya Leonov (RUS)	14 goals André (BRA)	Andrey Bukhlitskiy (RUS)	269 (8.4)
2013 Details	Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia		Russia	Spain	Brazil	Tahiti		16	Bruno Xavier (BRA)	11 goals Dmitry Shishin (RUS)	Dona (ESP)	243 (7.6)
2015 Details	Praia da Baía, Espinho, Portugal		Portugal	Tahiti	Russia	Italy		16	Heimanu Philippe Taiarui (TAH)	8 goals Pedro Moran (PAR) Madjer (POR) Noel Ott (SUI)	Jonathan Rotui Torohia (TAH)	257 (8.0)
2017 Details	Malcolm Park, Nassau, The Bahamas		Brazil	Tahiti	Iran	Italy		16	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh (IRN)	17 goals Gabriele Gori (ITA)	Peyman Hosseini (IRN)	266 (8.3)

Key

Bold Years = FIFA tournaments

* = Hosts

Successful national teams

Brazil are by far the most successful nation, with 14 titles. However their hold on the title has become less apparent since the tournament came under the control of FIFA and moved outside of Rio. They are followed by Russia (2011 and 2013) and Portugal (2001 and 2015) with two wins, and France with one title (2005). France won the first FIFA-sanctioned tournament in 2005. Brazil and Portugal are the only teams to win the world championship before and after FIFA started sanctioning the sport.

Overall 18 of the 45 nations who have ever competed have made a top four finish. Brazil remained the only nation to finish in the final four every championship until 2015 when they finished in fifth place. Of those 18 nations, only 7 have made a top four finish before and after FIFA started sanctioning the World Cup.

Nation	Winners	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place
Brazil	14 (1995*, 1996*, 1997*, 1998*, 1999*, 2000*, 2002*, 2003*, 2004*, 2006*, 2007*, 2008, 2009, 2017)	1 (2011)	2 (2005*, 2013)	1 (2001*)
Portugal	2 (2001, 2015*)	3 (1999, 2002, 2005)	5 (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011)	1 (2006)
Russia	2 (2011, 2013)	—	1 (2015)	—
France	1 (2005)	2 (1998, 2001)	1 (2006)	2 (2003, 2007)
Uruguay	—	3 (1996, 1997, 2006)	4 (1998, 1999, 2002, 2007)	1 (2009)
Spain	—	3 (2003, 2004, 2013)	1 (2000)	1 (2008)
Tahiti	—	2 (2015, 2017)	—	1 (2013*)
Italy	—	1 (2008)	1 (1996)	4 (1995, 2004, 2015, 2017)
United States	—	1 (1995)	1 (1997)	1 (1996)
Peru	—	1 (2000)	—	2 (1998, 1999)
Switzerland	—	1 (2009)	—	—
Mexico	—	1 (2007)	—	—
Argentina	—	—	1 (2001)	1 (1997)
England	—	—	1 (1995)	—
Iran	—	—	1 (2017)	—
Japan	—	—	—	2 (2000, 2005)
El Salvador	—	—	—	1 (2011)
Thailand	—	—	—	1 (2002)

Key

Bold Years = FIFA tournaments

* = Hosts

Results by confederation

Total times teams played by confederation

	AFC	CAF	CONCACAF	CONMEBOL	OFC	UEFA	Total
Teams	32	18	29	63	10	86	238
Top 8	14	5	15	49	3	66	152
Top 4	4	0	5	31	3	33	76
Top 2	0	0	2	19	2	15	38
1st	0	0	0	14	0	5	19
2nd	0	0	2	5	2	10	19
3rd	1	0	1	7	0	10	19
4th	3	0	2	5	1	8	19

Tournament appearances

Since the tournament's establishment in 1995, as of the 2015 World Cup, 45 different countries have participated over the 19 competitions. However, only one country has participated in all World Cups, which is Brazil. European teams have dominated in appearances by continent, since 14 of the 45 different countries have been from Europe, at least double than that of any other.

Before qualification began, many of the same nations were invited back year on year. This meant that once qualification was introduced in 2006, giving all nations in that confederation a chance to earn a berth at the finals, there was an initial influx of new nations making their debut, including African teams whose continent had only been represented by one nation before and Oceanian countries who had never had their continent been represented previously.

Only 8 of the 45 countries have failed to appear in a FIFA controlled World Cup. Peru (5) have appeared in the most competitions without any one of those being under FIFA's control. Meanwhile, Iran (7) have appeared in the most FIFA sanctioned tournaments without having ever appeared in the old World Championships before 2005.

All-time tables

As of 2017

Key

Appearances Apps / Win in Normal Time W = 3 Points / Win in Extra Time W+ = 2 Points / Win in Penalty shoot-out WP = 1 Point / Loss L = 0 Points

Notes

• Default position of teams goes by the total points column (Pts)
• FIFA issued changes to the rules of beach soccer at the start of 2015 meaning teams now earn 1 point for a penalty shootout win; teams were awarded 2 points for a shootout win prior to 2015. For the purpose of this table, the calculation of points earned goes by the current rules meaning that penalty shootout wins that occurred both after and before the 2015 rule change have been counted as just 1 point in the "Pts" column.

Overall table (1995 to present)

This table shows the overall statistics of all 19 World Cups that have occurred since 1995, combining the results of both the original Beach Soccer World Championships era and the current FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup era.

Pos	Team	Apps	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	Dif	Pts	Av. Pts
1	Brazil	19	101	92	0	3	6	748	274	+474	279	2.76
2	Portugal	16	78	48	4	3	23	418	266	+152	155	1.99
3	Spain	14	56	29	1	0	26	219	205	+14	89	1.59
4	Uruguay	15	63	26	3	4	30	256	249	+7	88	1.4
5	France	12	50	23	0	4	23	212	221	–9	73	1.46
6	Argentina	16	57	23	0	1	33	167	211	–44	70	1.23
7	Italy	17	62	22	1	4	35	240	282	–42	68	1.1
8	Russia	7	32	20	2	0	10	146	97	+49	64	2
9	United States	13	44	18	0	0	26	148	198	–50	54	1.23
10	Japan	13	44	11	1	2	30	148	221	–73	37	0.84
11	Tahiti	4	21	10	1	2	8	84	84	0	34	1.62
12	Peru	5	21	11	0	0	9	81	78	+3	33	1.57
13	Switzerland	5	20	10	0	1	9	93	94	–1	31	1.55
14	Senegal	6	21	8	1	2	10	107	86	+21	28	1.33
15	Iran	7	26	6	1	1	18	95	115	–20	21	0.81
16	Nigeria	5	17	5	1	2	9	80	91	–11	19	1.12
17	Mexico	5	19	5	0	2	12	50	77	–27	17	0.89
18	El Salvador	4	16	4	1	0	11	49	81	–32	14	0.88
19	Paraguay	3	10	4	0	0	6	44	43	+1	12	1.2
20	Solomon Islands	5	15	4	0	0	11	55	105	–50	12	0.8
21	United Arab Emirates	5	15	3	0	1	11	51	62	–11	10	0.67
22	Canada	3	10	3	0	1	6	34	63	–29	10	1
23	Ukraine	3	9	3	0	0	6	32	28	+4	9	1
24	England	1	5	2	0	0	3	20	31	–11	6	1.2
25	Bahrain	2	7	1	0	1	5	21	38	–17	4	0.57
26	Thailand	2	7	1	0	1	5	16	34	–18	4	0.57
27	Poland	2	6	1	0	0	5	24	42	–18	3	0.5
28	Denmark	1	3	1	0	0	2	10	16	–6	3	1
29	Bahamas	1	3	1	0	0	2	7	14	–7	3	1
30	Oman	2	6	1	0	0	5	18	26	–8	3	0.5
31	Chile	1	4	1	0	0	3	14	22	–8	3	0.75
32	Ivory Coast	2	6	1	0	0	5	26	37	–11	3	0.5
33	Venezuela	3	8	1	0	0	7	22	33	–11	3	0.38
34	Germany	4	9	1	0	0	8	22	56	–34	3	0.33
35	Cameroon	2	6	0	0	1	5	12	35	–23	1	0.17
36	Netherlands	2	6	0	0	1	5	13	42	–29	1	0.17
37	Turkey	1	2	0	0	0	2	1	5	–4	0	0
38	Madagascar	1	3	0	0	0	3	7	12	–5	0	0
39	Australia	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	8	–6	0	0
40	Malaysia	1	2	0	0	0	2	4	13	–9	0	0
41	Panama	1	3	0	0	0	3	4	14	–10	0	0
42	Belgium	1	2	0	0	0	2	5	18	–13	0	0
43	Ecuador	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	22	–16	0	0
44	Costa Rica	2	6	0	0	0	6	8	31	–23	0	0
45	South Africa	2	4	0	0	0	4	6	29	–23	0	0

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup era (2005 onward)

This table shows the overall statistics of all 9 World Cups that have occurred since 2005, of the current FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup era only.

Pos	Team	Apps	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	Dif	Pts	Av. Pts
1	Brazil	9	51	44	0	3	4	326	151	+175	135	2.65
2	Portugal	8	43	25	3	3	12	241	147	+94	84	1.95
3	Russia	6	29	19	2	0	8	139	87	+52	61	2.1
4	Spain	7	29	15	0	0	14	110	97	+13	45	1.55
5	Argentina	8	27	13	0	1	13	85	89	–4	40	1.48
6	France	4	21	12	0	3	6	97	67	+30	39	1.86
7	Uruguay	5	24	10	2	1	11	101	94	+7	35	1.46
8	Tahiti	4	21	10	1	2	8	84	84	0	34	1.62
9	Italy	7	26	10	1	3	12	112	99	+13	31	1.19
10	Senegal	6	21	8	1	2	10	107	86	+21	28	1.33
11	Switzerland	4	17	9	0	1	7	84	77	+7	28	1.65
12	Japan	9	30	8	1	1	20	108	143	–35	27	0.9
13	Iran	7	26	6	1	1	18	95	115	–20	21	0.81
14	Nigeria	5	17	5	1	2	9	80	91	–11	19	1.12
15	Mexico	5	19	5	0	2	12	50	77	–27	17	0.89
16	El Salvador	4	16	4	1	0	11	49	81	–32	14	0.88
17	Paraguay	3	10	4	0	0	6	44	43	+1	12	1.2
18	Solomon Islands	5	15	4	0	0	11	55	105	–50	12	0.8
19	United Arab Emirates	5	15	3	0	1	11	51	62	–11	10	0.67
20	Ukraine	3	9	3	0	0	6	32	28	+4	9	1
21	United States	4	11	3	0	0	8	36	60	–24	9	0.82
22	Canada	1	4	1	0	1	2	12	26	–14	4	1
23	Bahrain	2	7	1	0	1	5	21	38	–17	4	0.57
24	Bahamas	1	3	1	0	0	2	7	14	–7	3	1
25	Oman	2	6	1	0	0	5	18	26	–8	3	0.5
26	Ivory Coast	2	6	1	0	0	5	26	37	–11	3	0.5
27	Poland	2	6	1	0	0	5	24	42	–18	3	0.5
28	Netherlands	1	3	0	0	1	2	6	12	–6	1	0.33
29	Cameroon	2	6	0	0	1	5	12	35	–23	1	0.17
30	Madagascar	1	3	0	0	0	3	7	12	–5	0	0
31	Australia	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	8	–6	0	0
32	Venezuela	1	3	0	0	0	3	8	17	–9	0	0
33	Panama	1	3	0	0	0	3	4	14	–10	0	0
34	Thailand	1	2	0	0	0	2	3	13	–10	0	0
35	South Africa	1	2	0	0	0	2	4	15	–11	0	0
36	Ecuador	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	22	–16	0	0
37	Costa Rica	2	6	0	0	0	6	8	31	–23	0	0

Beach Soccer World Championships era (1995–2004)

This table shows the overall statistics of all 10 World Cups that occurred between 1995 and 2004, of the now defunct Beach Soccer World Championships era only.

Pos	Team	Apps	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	Dif	Pts	Av. Pts
1	Brazil	10	50	48	0	0	2	422	123	+299	144	2.88
2	Portugal	8	35	23	1	0	11	177	119	+58	71	2.03
3	Uruguay	10	39	16	1	3	19	155	155	0	53	1.36
4	United States	9	33	15	0	0	18	112	138	–26	45	1.36
5	Spain	7	27	14	1	0	12	109	108	+1	44	1.63
6	Italy	10	36	12	0	1	23	128	183	–55	37	1.03
7	France	8	29	11	0	1	17	115	154	–39	34	1.17
8	Peru	5	21	11	0	0	9	81	78	+3	33	1.57
9	Argentina	8	30	10	0	0	20	82	122	–40	30	1
10	Japan	4	14	3	0	1	10	40	78	–38	10	0.71
11	England	1	5	2	0	0	3	20	31	–11	6	1.2
12	Canada	2	6	2	0	0	4	22	37	–15	6	1
13	Thailand	1	5	1	0	1	3	13	21	–8	4	0.8
14	Venezuela	2	5	1	0	0	4	14	16	–2	3	0.6
15	Russia	1	3	1	0	0	2	7	10	–3	3	1
16	Denmark	1	3	1	0	0	2	10	16	–6	3	1
17	Chile	1	4	1	0	0	3	14	22	–8	3	0.75
18	Switzerland	1	3	1	0	0	2	9	17	–8	3	1
19	Germany	4	9	1	0	0	8	22	56	–34	3	0.33
20	Turkey	1	2	0	0	0	2	1	5	–4	0	0
21	Malaysia	1	2	0	0	0	2	4	13	–9	0	0
22	South Africa	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	14	–12	0	0
23	Belgium	1	2	0	0	0	2	5	18	–13	0	0
24	Netherlands	1	3	0	0	0	3	7	30	–23	0	0

Awards (FIFA era)

The following documents the winners of the awards presented during the FIFA era of the World Cup. During the Beach Soccer World Championships era, only three awards were presented – to the top scorer, best player and best goalkeeper.

When FIFA acquired the tournament in 2005, the awards were expanded to honour the top three players in each of the existing categories (bar the best goalkeeper which remained a solo award) as well as recognition to the team with the most fair play points as standard in other FIFA competitions. Overall, eight awards are now presented.

Golden Ball

The adidas Golden Ball award is awarded to the player who plays the most outstanding football during the tournament. It is selected by the media poll.

World Cup	Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball	Ref(s)
2005 Brazil	Madjer	Neném	Amarelle	[3]
2006 Brazil	Madjer	Benjamin	Bruno	[4]
2007 Brazil	Buru	Madjer	Morgan Plata	[5]
2008 France	Amarelle	Benjamin	Belchior	[6]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Dejan Stankovic	Madjer	Benjamin	[7]
2011 Italy	Ilya Leonov	André	Frank Velasquez	[8]
2013 Tahiti	Bruno Xavier	Ozu Moreira	Raimana Li Fung Kuee	[9]
2015 Portugal	Heimanu Philippe Taiarui	Alan	Madjer	[10]
2017 Bahamas	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh	Mauricinho	Datinha	[11]

Golden Shoe

The adidas Golden Shoe is awarded to the topscorer of the tournament. If more than one players are equal by same goals, the players will be selected based by the most assists during the tournament.

World Cup	Golden Shoe	Goals	Silver Shoe	Goals	Bronze Shoe	Goals	Ref(s)
2005 Brazil	Madjer	12	Neném	9	Anthony Mendy	8	[3]
2006 Brazil	Madjer	21	Benjamin	12	Bruno	10	[4]
2007 Brazil	Buru	10	Morgan Plata	9	Bruno	8	[5]
2008 France	Madjer	13	Amarelle	11	Belchior	10	[6]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Dejan Stankovic	16	Madjer	11	Buru	10	[7]
2011 Italy	André	14	Madjer	12	Frank Velásquez	9	[8]
2013 Tahiti	Dmitry Shishin	11	Bruno Xavier	10	Agustín Ruiz	7	[9]
2015 Portugal	Pedro Moran	8	Madjer	8	Noel Ott	8	[10]
2017 Bahamas	Gabriele Gori	17	Rodrigo	9	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh	9	[11]

Golden Glove

The Golden Glove Award is awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament.

World Cup	Golden Glove	Ref(s)
2008 France	Roberto Valeiro	[6]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Mão	[7]
2011 Italy	Andrey Bukhlitskiy	[8]
2013 Tahiti	Dona	[9]
2015 Portugal	Jonathan Torohia	[10]
2017 Bahamas	Peyman Hosseini	[11]

FIFA Fair Play Award

FIFA Fair Play Award is given to the team who has the best fair play record during the tournament with the criteria set by FIFA Fair Play Committee.

Tournament	FIFA Fair Play Award	Ref(s)
2005 Brazil	Japan	[3]
2006 Brazil	France	[4]
2007 Brazil	Brazil	[5]
2008 France	Russia	[6]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Japan & Russia	[7]
2011 Italy	Nigeria	[8]
2013 Tahiti	Russia	[9]
2015 Portugal	Brazil	[10]
2017 Bahamas	Brazil	[11]

Attendance figures

Note that attendance records are not available between 1995 and 2002.

Year	Location	Stadium capacity	Matches	Total gate	Lowest gate	Highest gate	Average gate	Attendance %
2003	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	6,000	16	74,700	2,000	6,000	4,669	78%
2004	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	10,000	20	81,900	500	10,000	4,095	41%
2005	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	10,000	20	110,500	500	10,000	5,525	55%
2006	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	10,000	32	179,800	800	10,000	5,619	56%
2007	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	10,000	32	157,300	1,000	10,000	5,525	49%
2008	Marsielle, France	7,000	32	176,500	3,000§	7,000	5,516	79%
2009	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	5,700	32	97,500	150	5,700	3,047	63%
2011	Ravenna, Italy	5,500	32	119,370	1,000	5,500	3,730	68%
2013	Papeete, Tahiti	4,200	32	109,650	1,100	4,200	3,427	82%
2015	Espinho, Portugal	3,500	32	96,300	1,600	3,500	3,009	86%
2017	Nassau, Bahamas	3,500	32	57,450	400	3,500	1,795	51%
Overall (2003–2017)			312	1,260,970	150	10,000	4,042	60%

Key:

• § – from the attendance figures available; some are unrecorded
• – overall percentage matches were attended from the total possible maximum attendance figure if all matches were at full capacity: total gate / (stadium capacity x matches played)
• – two venues were used, the smaller with a capacity of 1,200 for 6 of the 32 matches which the lowest gate figure comes from

References

1. ↑ "Valcke : Beach soccer on the move". Fifa.com. Retrieved 2015-07-09. 
2. ↑ Archived March 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
3. 1 2 3 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2005". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
4. 1 2 3 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2006". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
5. 1 2 3 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2007". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
6. 1 2 3 4 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Marseilles 2008". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
7. 1 2 3 4 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Dubai 2009". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
8. 1 2 3 4 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Ravenna/Italy 2011". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
9. 1 2 3 4 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Tahiti 2013". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
10. 1 2 3 4 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Dubai 2009". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015. 
11. 1 2 3 4 "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 Awards". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 30 May 2017. 

External links

• History at FIFA.com
• The Beach Soccer Championships
• RSSSF.com Beach Soccer Championships