The Beach Soccer World Championships was the premier international beach soccer competition contested by men's national teams between 1995 and 2004. It was replaced by the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.DUBAI 2009: FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Bleacher Report. 25 November 2009.

The tournament took place annually in Brazil under the supervision of Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) and its predecessors, crowning the world champions of the sport.FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2017 Statistical Kit – post event edition. FIFA. 14 August 2017. Due to the sport's rapid growth, FIFA took an interest in it, 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.

Brazil were the most successful team, winning nine of the ten tournaments.

History

The first Beach Soccer World Championship 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.

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, before being replaced by the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup the next year.

Results

#YearLocation(s)FinalThird place play-offNo. ofteamsGoals(match avg.) ChampionsScore Runners-up Third placeScore Fourth place11995Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil8–17–68149 (9.3)21996Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil3–04–38131 (8.2)31997Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil5–25–18144 (9.0)41998Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil9–26–310218 (9.1)51999Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil5–22–2 (5–4 p.)12174 (8.7)62000Details Marina da Glória, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil6–26–312172 (8.6)72001Details Costa do Sauípe, Mata de São João, Brazil9–34–212144 (7.2)82002Details Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil; Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil6–55–38145 (9.1)92003Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil8–27–48150 (9.4)102004Details Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil6–45–112155 (7.8)

Teams reaching the top four Overall, half of the 24 nations who ever competed made a top four finish; only two won the title. Brazil were by far the most successful nation, winning nine titles of the possible ten. Portugal claimed the only crown Brazil did not win.

Brazil were also the only nation to finish in the final four of every championship.

NationTitlesRunners-upThird placeFourth placeTotal top 49 (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) — —1 (2001) 101 (2001)2 (1999, 2002)2 (2003, 2004) — 5 — 2 (1996, 1997) 3 (1998, 1999, 2002) — 5 — 2 (2003, 2004) 1 (2000) — 3 —2 (1998, 2001) —1 (2003) 3 — 1 (1995) 1 (1997) 1 (1996) 3 — 1 (2000) — 2 (1998, 1999) 3 — — 1 (1996) 2 (1995, 2004) 3 — — 1 (2001) 1 (1997) 2 — — 1 (1995) — 1 — — — 1 (2000) 1 — — — 1 (2002) 1 Note: Brazil hosted all tournaments.

By confederation + Total times teams played by confederation Asia Africa North America South America Oceania Europe Total Teams 6 1 11 36 0 44 98 Top 8 5 0 10 30 0 35 80 Top 4 2 0 3 20 0 15 40 Top 2 0 0 1 12 0 7 20 1st 0 0 0 9 0 1 10 2nd 0 0 1 3 0 6 10 3rd 0 0 1 4 0 5 10 4th 2 0 1 4 0 3 10

Tournament appearances

24 countries participated over the ten competitions, however nearly half (11) only appeared at one edition. Three participated in all World Championships: Brazil, Italy and Uruguay. European teams dominated in unique appearances by continent, since half of all countries were from Europe. Oceania were the only region never to be represented at least once.

Only eight of the 24 countries have failed to reappear at a FIFA controlled World Cup. Peru (5) appeared in the most competitions without yet participating in a FIFA World Cup.

Apps. Country First Last Best result10 1995 2004Champions 1995 2004Third place 1995 2004Runners-up 9 1995 2004Runners-up 8 1995 2004Third place 1997 2004Runners-up 1997 2004Champions7 1998 2004Runners-up5 1998 2004Runners-up4 1995 2004Round 1 1997 2003Fourth place2 1996 1999QFs 2000 2001QFs11995Third place1995Round 11996Round 11996Round 11998Round 11999Round 11999Round 12001Round 12002Fourth place2004Round 12004QFs

Overall team records In this ranking 3 points are awarded for a win in normal time, 2 points for a win in extra time or penalty shoot-out and 0 for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then by goal difference, then by goals scored. Only the points for the first 10 World Championships that occurred between 1995 and 2004 are counted here.

Rank Team 110504802422123+299144283523111177119+58713103916419155155056493315018112138−2645572714112109108+1446103612123128183−5538782911117115154−39358521110108178+33398301002082122−40301041431104078−381111152032031−11612262042237−15613151131321−8514251041416−231513102710−3316131021016−6317141031422−831813102917−8319491082256−343201200215−402112002413−902212002214−1202312002518−1302413003730−230

Awards The following documents the winners of the awards presented at the conclusion of the tournament. Three awards were consistently bestowed at each event.

YearTop goalscorer(s)GlsBest player(s)Best goalkeeperRef.1995 Alessandro Altobelli Zico12 Júnior Zico Paulo Sérgio1996 Alessandro Altobelli14 Edinho Paulo Sérgio1997 Júnior Venancio Ramos11 Júnior Paulo Sérgio1998 Júnior14 Júnior Paulo Sérgio1999 Júnior Gustavo Matosas10 Jorginho Pedro Crespo2000 Júnior13 Júnior Eichi Kato2001 Alan10 Hernâni Pascal Olmeta2002 Madjer Neném Nico9 Neném Vilard Normcharoen2003 Neném15 Amarelle Robertinho2004 Madjer12 Jorginho Roberto Valeiro

Top goalscorers

From the data available, the below table shows the top 20 goalscorers of the World Championships.

RankPlayerTeamGoals1 Júnior 712 Neném 553 Júnior Negão 544 Madjer 525 Jorginho 436 Alan 377 Venancio Ramos 34 8 Amarelle 329 Alessandro Altobelli 30 Benjamin 11 Cláudio Adão 2812 Edinho 25 Juninho 14 Zico 2315 Hernâni 22 Magal 17Gabriel Silvera 2018Gustavo Matosas 1819Zak Ibsen 17Nico Jorge Olaechea Carlos Russo

Sources:1995–2001 (combined scorers), 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 Notes:Note that the sources from 1995–2002 only list the players with the most goals from all those tournaments combined; players must have scored at least 10 goals overall to make the list; players with less goals are not listed. This means for players who subsequently scored enough goals to make the above all-time table, if they played between 1995–2002 and scored less than 10 goals, they would not have made the source lists and therefore any goals they did score during that time are a) unknown and b) missing from the above table (if they did score any). Note that there are some discrepancies between FIFA's match reports and FIFA's top scorers lists for the same tournament. During the early years of beach soccer, goals scored in a penalty shootout were often combined with goals scored during regulation time when the match score was documented – note that it is also possible such goals may have been counted in a player's goal tally in the sources.

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, Brazil6,0001674,7002,0006,0004,66978%2004 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil10,0002081,90050010,0004,09541%

References

External links History, FIFA.com The Beach Soccer Championships, BeachsoccerUSA.org RSSSF.com Beach Soccer Championships, RSSSF.com