The 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the premier international beach soccer championship contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Overall, this was the 19th edition of a world cup in beach soccer since the establishment of the Beach Soccer World Championships which ran from 1995 to 2004 but was not governed by FIFA. This was the fourth tournament to take place under the biennial basis; the World Cup now takes place once every two years, after taking place on a yearly basis until 2009.
FIFA originally started the bidding process in April 2013, whilst in December 2014, the Bahamas were appointed as hosts; this was the first time a men's senior FIFA tournament was hosted in the Caribbean, and the first FIFA tournament hosted by the Bahamas. Fifteen teams advanced through their respective preliminary continental qualification competitions, which started in September 2016 and ended in March 2017, to join the host team in the final tournament which included three nations making their debuts at the finals and notably saw two-time champions (in 2011 and 2013) Russia fail to qualify. The tournament was played from 27 April to 7 May 2017, with all 32 matches hosted in one 3,500 seater stadium, in the Bahamian capital, Nassau.
The hosts, making their first appearance at a World Cup, exited at the group stage. Portugal were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Brazil in the quarter-finals. Brazil ultimately went on to defeat Tahiti in the final to claim their fourteenth world title since the competition's inception in 1995, and their fifth title of the FIFA era, ending an eight-year wait after last winning the crown in 2009. Iran finished third to claim the best ever placing by an Asian nation in the history of the competition.
Host selection First bidding On 17 April 2013, FIFA announced that bidding had begun for five competitions between 2016 and 2017, including the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Declarations of interest were made by May 15 deadline whilst the hosts were scheduled to be revealed in December 2013.
The following 10 countries made an official bid for the World Cup, as revealed by FIFA on 28 May 2013.
Argentina Bahrain Equatorial Guinea Estonia India Israel Mexico Seychelles South Africa Turkey
Second bidding Due to undisclosed circumstances, FIFA did not pick a host from the first round of bidding by December 2013. And so on 6 March 2014, FIFA announced that bidding had re-opened for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. New member associations interested in hosting submitted a declaration of interest by 15 April 2014, and provided the complete set of bidding documents by 1 October 2014.
The following 12 countries made official bids for hosting the tournament. Argentina were the only country to submit an entry in both rounds of bidding.
Argentina Bahamas Brazil Cayman Islands Costa Rica Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Germany Trinidad & Tobago United Arab Emirates United States
On 19 December 2014, the FIFA Executive Committee announced the Bahamas as hosts.
Qualification Qualification began with the European qualifiers on 2 September 2016 and concluded with the final match of the AFC event on 11 March 2017. The hosts, the Bahamas, qualified automatically.
European nations usually receive five spots at the World Cup, and North American nations, two. However Since the Bahamas, as hosts, automatically qualified, taking one of the two North American two berths by default, it was decided by FIFA to transfer one spot from UEFA to CONCACAF to still allow two North American countries to qualify as normal, reducing the number of European berths to four.
African zone
The two African qualifiers were determined via the 2016 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations (the first time the qualification event was held under the Africa Cup of Nations title after CAF upped their commitment to beach soccer in 2015). Eight nations took part in the finals between 13 and 18 December in Lagos, Nigeria, who qualified from a preliminary 14 team, two-legged play off event in August and September. Senegal ultimately proved victorious claiming their fourth African crown and fourth successive qualification to the World Cup. Runners-up and hosts Nigeria also qualified, their first qualification since 2011.
Asian zone
The qualifiers for members of the AFC took place in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia between 4 and 11 March 2017. 14 teams originally entered but two (Myanmar and Uzbekistan) withdrew before the start of the tournament. Having never failed to qualify for a FIFA era World Cup, Japan narrowly progressed to the semi-finals of the competition as the best runner-up of the three groups in the group stage. Iran and the United Arab Emirates successfully won their semi finals to qualify for the World Cup (for the 7th and 5th time respectively), with Iran winning the final (their 2nd AFC title). Semi final losers Japan and Lebanon contested the final World Cup berth in the third place play off with the Japanese coming out on top to qualify.
European zone
The qualifiers for the members of UEFA took place between 2 and 11 September 2016 in Jesolo, Italy. A total of 28 teams entered into the tournament with the top four teams (the semi-finalists) qualifying for the World Cup finals. In a surprise result, Poland, ranked 12th in Europe prior to the competition, won the event and secured only their second qualification to a World Cup finals following their debut in 2006. The other successful qualifiers were runners-up Switzerland, third placed and defending World Champions Portugal who beat Italy, finishing fourth, the final qualifier. Poland's success in the second group stage caused a major upset by denying two time World Cup champions (2011 and 2013) Russia a berth at the finals for the first time since 2006. Three time World Cup runners-up (2003, 2004 and 2013) Spain also failed to qualify for just the second time since their debut in 1998.
North, Central American and Caribbean Zone
The North American qualification event took place between 20 and 26 February 2017 in Nassau, the Bahamas at the very stadium the World Cup would be hosted in. 16 teams took part contesting two qualification berths. In a surprise to all, Panama, in just their second CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship appearance, beat all four historically dominant forces in North America on their way to winning the tournament (Costa Rica in the group stage, the United States in the quarter-finals, El Salvador in the semi-finals and defending champions Mexico in the final). As the finalists, Panama and Mexico qualified for the World Cup, the former for the first time (the first new North American World Cup debutants since 2009), the latter for the fifth time.
Oceanian zone The 2017 OFC Beach Soccer Championship was originally scheduled to take place in February, however for undisclosed reasons, the tournament was cancelled. Due to their strong performances at the previous two World Cups, the OFC handpicked Tahiti to be the Oceanian representative at the 2017 World Cup (without having to qualify) in December 2015.
South American zone
Qualifiers for South America took place in Lambaré, Paraguay between 5 and 12 February 2017 with all 10 members of CONMEBOL taking part (the only qualification event to see all members of the respective confederation participate). With three berths available, finalists Brazil and hosts Paraguay secured their qualification by winning their respective semi finals. Brazil beat the Paraguayans in the final to win their sixth title. Ecuador beat Argentina on penalties in the third place play off to claim the final spot at the World Cup, their first qualification after missing out by one placing, finishing fourth, on three previous occasions. This condemned Argentina to their first absence from a World Cup since 2003, their first of the FIFA era, and missing just a third World Cup in total having first appeared in the maiden event in 1995.
Qualified teams The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Bahamas who qualified automatically as hosts, the other 15 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Executive Committee on 17 March 2016.
ConfederationQualifying TournamentQualifier(s)AFC (Asia)2017 AFC Beach Soccer ChampionshipCAF (Africa)2016 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of NationsCONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean)Host nation2017 CONCACAF Beach Soccer ChampionshipCONMEBOL (South America)2017 CONMEBOL Beach Soccer ChampionshipOFC (Oceania)Appointed by OFC (no qualifying tournament)UEFA (Europe)2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)
1.Teams that will make their debut.
Organisation
The following were key milestones in the organisation of the tournament: The official emblem was unveiled on 28 July 2016. The match schedule was announced on 30 August 2016. The official match ball was revealed on 27 January 2017. The official song of the World Cup, Pure Good Vibes by Bahamian artist Rock Carey, was revealed alongside the draw on 28 February 2017. The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 Trophy Experience, touring the winners' trophy around five islands of the Bahamas between March and April 2017, was launched on 21 March 2017. To mark the 30-day countdown to the start of the tournament, the official promotional poster of the World Cup was unveiled by FIFA on 29 March 2017 at the National Beach Soccer Arena at Malcolm Park. FIFA's partners (Adidas, Coca-Cola, Gazprom, Kia Motors, Visa and WANDA) were the tournament's main sponsors along with national supporters in the Bahamas (BTC, Kalik Light and Scotiabank) A budget of US$7 million was approved for the tournament. In 2019, the final cost was reported over-budget at a total of US$9.93 million.
Venue One venue in the capital city of Nassau was used. Nassau Nassau Stadium Capacity: 3,500
Match officials FIFA chose 24 officials from 24 different countries to referee matches at the World Cup, who were revealed on 31 March 2017. At least one referee was representing each of the six confederations: four from the AFC, three from CAF, five from CONMEBOL, three from CONCACAF, one from the OFC and eight from UEFA.
Confederation RefereesAFC Ebrahim Almansory Yuichi Hatano Bakhtiyor Namazov Shao Liang CAF Issam Bousbih Said Hachim Jelili OgunmuyiwaCONCACAF Juan Angeles Gonzalo Yurandir Carballo Perez Miguel LopezCONMEBOL Pablo Marcelo Cadenasso Martinez Jorge Luis Martínez Pavón Ivo Moraes Micke Palomino Mariano Romo
Confederation RefereesOFC Hugo PadoUEFA Laurynas Arzuolaitis Sofien Benchabane Eduards Borisevics Sergio Filipe Gomes Soares Ago Kärtmann Gionni Matticoli Łukasz Ostrowski Jude Amin Utulu
Draw The official draw was held on 28 February 2017, 20:00 EST (UTC−5), at the Atlantis Paradise Island Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, in the attendance of the Bahamas Prime Minister, Perry Christie and CONCACAF General Secretary, Philippe Moggio. Former Brazilian association football international, Emerson and Miss Universe Bahamas 2016, Cherell Williamson, assisted the draw.