AFC Beach Soccer Championship

The AFC Beach Soccer Championship is the main international championship for beach soccer in Asia, mirroring that of the AFC Asian Cup in association football. Also known as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers for AFC, the championship was established in 2006 after FIFA made requirements for all confederations to begin holding a qualification tournament to determine the best national team(s) in the region and hence those who would proceed to represent their continent in the World Cup.

AFC Beach Soccer Championship

Founded	2006 (2006)
Region	Asia (AFC)
Number of teams	15 (2019)
Qualifier for	FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
Current champions	Japan (3rd title)
Most successful team(s)	Japan (3 titles)
Website	afc.com
2021 AFC Beach Soccer Championship

Asia was awarded three spots at the finals under FIFA's new changes to the organization of the World Cup and hence the winners, runners-up and winner of the third place play-off qualify to the succeeding World Cup finals. Before 2006, there was no consistent method of qualification or number of spots at the World Cup for Asian nations, with countries often simply being invited to play in the finals, without competing for a regional crown beforehand.

The most successful nations is Japan, who have all won three of the nine tournaments. Japan also qualified for the World Cup all tenth years by never missing top three .

Now that the World Cup takes place every two years, so does the championship, which started with the qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup.

Tournaments

For all tournaments, the top three teams qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, except for 2009, where only the top two teams qualified as one of the AFC spots were given to the World Cup hosts United Arab Emirates.

Year	Location		Final				Third Place Play-off
			Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
2006 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		Bahrain	5–3	Japan		Iran	6–4	China
2007 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		United Arab Emirates	4–3	Japan		Iran	6–0	Bahrain
2008 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		United Arab Emirates	4–3	Japan		Iran	4–1	China
2009^[1] details	Dubai United Arab Emirates		Japan	4–2	Bahrain		Oman	1–1 aet (2–1) pen	Iran
2011 details	Muscat, Oman		Japan	2–1	Oman		Iran	6–2	United Arab Emirates
2013 details	Doha, Qatar		Iran	6–6 aet (5–4) pen	Japan		United Arab Emirates	3–2	Australia
2015 details	Doha, Qatar		Oman	1–1 aet (3–2) pen	Japan		Iran	8–3	Lebanon
2017 details	Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia		Iran	7–2	United Arab Emirates		Japan	6–3	Lebanon
2019 details	Pattaya, Thailand		Japan	2–2 aet (3–1) pen	United Arab Emirates		Oman	2–2 aet (2–1) pen	Palestine
2021 details	Thailand

Notes:

1 ^ Qualifying automatically as World Cup hosts, reigning champions, the United Arab Emirates, did not take part in the championship.

Successful nations

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth Place	Top 4
Japan	3 (2009, 2011, 2019)	5 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2015)	1 (2017)	-	9
United Arab Emirates	2 (2007*, 2008*)	2 (2017, 2019)	1 (2013)	1 (2011)	6
Iran	2 (2013, 2017)	-	5 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015)	1 (2009)	8
Oman	1 (2015)	1 (2011*)	2 (2009, 2019)	-	4
Bahrain	1 (2006)	1 (2009)	-	1 (2007)	3
China	-	-	-	2 (2006, 2008)	2
Lebanon	-	-	-	2 (2015, 2017)	2
Australia	-	-	-	1 (2013)	1
Palestine	-	-	-	1 (2019)	1

* = Hosts

Overall Standings

As of 2019

Rank	Team	Part	Pld	W	WE	WP	L	GF	GA	Dif	Pts
1	Japan	9	43	30	1	2	10	226	113	+113	94
2	Iran	9	41	27	1	1	12	225	111	+114	84
3	United Arab Emirates	8	37	27	0	1	9	162	99	+83	82
4	Oman	6	29	19	0	4	6	117	72	+45	61
5	Bahrain	8	35	18	1	2	14	121	105	+16	58
6	China	9	35	10	0	2	23	102	149	-47	32
7	Lebanon	4	18	7	1	0	10	72	58	+14	23
8	Palestine	2	11	6	1	0	4	44	40	+4	20
9	Afghanistan	3	12	4	1	0	7	38	45	-7	14
10	Uzbekistan	5	18	4	0	0	14	64	77	-13	12
11	Australia	2	8	3	0	1	4	25	24	+1	10
12	Thailand	4	12	3	0	0	9	29	46	-17	9
13	Iraq	5	15	2	1	1	11	41	83	-42	9
14	Kuwait	3	9	2	0	0	7	34	44	-10	6
15	Malaysia	2	9	2	0	0	7	23	47	-24	6
16	Laos	1	3	1	0	0	2	11	21	-10	3
17	Saudi Arabia	1	5	1	0	0	4	13	26	-13	3
18	Qatar	4	14	1	0	0	13	30	85	-55	3
19	Vietnam	1	3	0	0	0	3	11	14	-3	0
20	India	1	2	0	0	0	2	5	10	-5	0
21	Indonesia	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	18	-12	0
22	Syria	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	19	-13	0
23	Kyrgyzstan	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	26	-20	0
24	Philippines	3	9	0	0	0	9	13	90	-77	0

Note: Win in Common Time W = 3 Points / Win in Extra Time WE = 2 Points / Win in Penalty shoot-out WP = 1 Point / Lose L = 0 Points

Appearances

These are the nations who have appeared in the AFC Beach Soccer Championship since 2006.

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• 5th-8th – Fifth to Eighth place
• 9th-12th – Ninth to Twelfth place
• 13th-16th – Thirteenth to Sixteenth place
• × – Did not enter
• × – Entered but withdrew
• q – Qualified for upcoming tournament
•    – Hosts

	2006 (6)	2007 (6)	2008 (6)	2009 (7)	2011 (11)	2013 (16)	2015 (14)	2017 (12)	2019 (15)	Years
Afghanistan	×	×	×	×	×	11th	×	6th	12th	3
Australia	×	×	×	5th	×	4th	×	×	×	2
Bahrain	1st	4th	×	2nd	6th	9th	7th	5th	6th	8
China	4th	5th	4th	7th	5th	7th	6th	12th	9th	9
India	×	6th	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	1
Indonesia	×	×	×	×	11th	×	×	×	×	1
Iran	3rd	3rd	3rd	4th	3rd	1st	3rd	1st	7th	9
Iraq	×	×	×	×	9th	10th	12th	9th	13th	5
Japan	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	2nd	2nd	3rd	1st	9
Kuwait	×	×	×	×	10th	×	9th	×	11th	3
Kyrgyzstan	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	15th	1
Laos	×	×	×	×	×	×	10th	×	×	1
Lebanon	×	×	×	×	×	8th	4th	4th	5th	4
Malaysia	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	8th	8th	2
Oman	×	×	×	3rd	2nd	5th	1st	7th	3rd	6
Palestine	×	×	×	×	×	6th	×	×	4th	2
Philippines	6th	×	6th	×	×	16th	×	×	×	3
Qatar	×	×	×	×	×	15th	14th	11th	14th	4
Saudi Arabia	×	×	×	×	×	12th	×	×	×	1
Syria	×	×	×	×	8th	×	×	×	×	1
Thailand	×	×	×	×	×	13th	13th	10th	10th	4
United Arab Emirates	5th	1st	1st	×	4th	3rd	5th	2nd	2nd	8
Uzbekistan	×	×	5th	6th	7th	14th	8th	×	×	5
Vietnam	×	×	×	×	×	×	11th	×	×	1
Total (24 Teams)	6	6	6	7	11	16	14	12	15	-

Awards

Most Valuable Players

Year	Player
2006 - 2009	Not Awarded
2011	Yahya Al-Araimi
2013	Ozu Moreira
2015	Ozu Moreira
2017	Mohammadali Mokhtari
2019	Ozu Moreira

Top Scorers

Year	Player	Goals
2006 - 2009	Not Awarded	-
2011	Takeshi Kawaharazuka Ishaq Al-Masl	8
2013	Moslem Mesigar	11
2015	Takasuke Goto	8
2017	Mohammadali Mokhtari	12
2019	Ozu Moreira	9

Best Goalkeeper

Year	Player
2006 - 2009	Not Awarded
2011	Shingo Terukina
2013	Simon Jaeger
2015	Peyman Hosseini
2017 - 2019	Not Awarded

Fair Play

Year	Player
2006 - 2015	Not Awarded
2017	Iran
2019	United Arab Emirates

Performance of qualifiers at the World Cup

Main article: National team appearances in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The following is a performance timeline of the AFC teams who have appeared in the Beach Soccer World Cup since being sanctioned by FIFA in 2005.

Legend

1st – Champions 2nd – Runners-up 3rd – Third place 4th – Fourth place    – Hosts

QF – Quarterfinals R1 – Round 1 (group stage) q – Qualified for upcoming tournament Total – Total times qualified for World Cup

Team \ Years	2005^[†]	2006	2007	2008	2009	2011	2013	2015	2017	2019	2021	Total
Bahrain		QF			R1							2
Iran		R1	R1	R1		R1	QF	QF	3rd			7
Japan	4th	QF	R1	R1	QF	R1	QF	QF	R1	4th		10
Oman						R1		R1		R1		3
Thailand	R1											1
United Arab Emirates			R1	R1	R1		R1		R1	R1		6
Total no. of unique qualifiers												6

Notes

1. ^
   In 2005, no AFC qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup were held and Japan and Thailand were selected to represent AFC.

External links

• AFC Beach Soccer Championship, the-AFC.com