FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

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.

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Founded	1995 (1995)
Region	International (FIFA)
Number of teams	16 (finals) 83 (2017 qualification)
Current champions	Portugal (3rd title)
Most successful team(s)	Brazil (14 titles)
Website	www.fifa.com/beachsoccerworldcup/
2021 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 2019 2021

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 in 2019 was held in Asunción, Paraguay, and crowned Portugal as champions for the second time – after defeating Italy 4–6 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.

Brazil national beach soccer team: 14 times winners

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.

A scene from the 2007 event in Brazil

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]

FIFA Champions Badge

In 2013, FIFA extended the FIFA Champions Badge to the winners of the competition, where it was first won by Russia.[3]

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	2019
UEFA	Europe	FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA)	5 teams		17^1	22^1	24	26	27	24	24	28	20
CONMEBOL	South America	FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)	3 teams		6	3	7	8	9	9	10	10	10
AFC	Asia	AFC Beach Soccer Championship	3 teams		6	6	6	7	11	16	15	14	15
CAF	Africa	Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations	2 teams		6	8	8	9	9	8	20	15	13
CONCACAF	North, Central America and the Caribbean	CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship	2 teams		5	4	4	6	8	10	16	16	16
OFC	Oceania	OFC Beach Soccer Championship	1 team		4	4	–	4	3	3	–	–	5
		Total	16 teams		44	47	49	50	67	70	85	83	79

^ As part of the Euro Beach Soccer League

The host country's confederation 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 generally continues to rise year on year; the total global number of participants has nearly doubled since 2006.

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 participated 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

See also: List of FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup finals

Beach Soccer World Championship

#	Year	Location(s)	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	No. of teams	Best player	Top goalscorer(s)		Best goalkeeper	Goals (match avg.)
1	1995 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	United States	England	Italy	8	Zico (BRA) Júnior (BRA)	Zico (BRA) Altobelli (ITA)	12 goals	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	149 (9.3)
2	1996 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Uruguay	Italy	United States	8	Edinho (BRA)	Altobelli (ITA)	14 goals	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	131 (8.2)
3	1997 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Uruguay	United States	Argentina	8	Júnior (BRA)	Júnior (BRA) Ramos (URU)	11 goals	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	144 (9.0)
4	1998 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	France	Uruguay	Peru	10	Júnior (BRA)	Júnior (BRA)	14 goals	Paulo Sérgio (BRA)	218 (9.1)
5	1999 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Portugal	Uruguay	Peru	12	Jorginho (BRA)	Júnior (BRA) Matosas (URU)	10 goals	Pedro Crespo (POR)	174 (8.7)
6	2000 Details	Marina da Glória, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Peru	Spain	Japan	12	Júnior (BRA)	Júnior (BRA)	13 goals	Eichi Kato (JPN)	172 (8.6)
7	2001 Details	Costa do Sauípe, Bahia, Brazil	Portugal	France	Argentina	Brazil	12	Hernâni (POR)	Alan (POR)	10 goals	Pascal Olmeta (FRA)	144 (7.2)
8	2002 Details	Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil	Brazil	Portugal	Uruguay	Thailand	8	Neném (BRA)	Neném (BRA) Madjer (POR) Nico (URU)	9 goals	Vilarb Nomcharoen (THA)	145 (9.1)
9	2003 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Spain	Portugal	France	8	Amarelle (ESP)	Neném (BRA)	15 goals	Robertinho (BRA)	150 (9.4)
10	2004 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Spain	Portugal	Italy	12	Jorginho (BRA)	Madjer (POR)	12 goals	Roberto Valeiro (ESP)	155 (7.8)

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

#	Year	Location(s)	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	No. of teams	Best player	Top goalscorer(s)		Best goalkeeper	Goals (match avg.)
11 (1)	2005 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	France	Portugal	Brazil	Japan	12	Madjer (POR)	Madjer (POR)	12 goals	Not awarded	164 (8.2)
12 (2)	2006 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Uruguay	France	Portugal	16	Madjer (POR)	Madjer (POR)	21 goals	Not awarded	286 (8.9)
13 (3)	2007 Details	Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Brazil	Mexico	Uruguay	France	16	Buru (BRA)	Buru (BRA)	10 goals	Not awarded	261 (8.2)
14 (4)	2008 Details	Plages du Prado, Marseille, France	Brazil	Italy	Portugal	Spain	16	Amarelle (ESP)	Madjer (POR)	13 goals	Roberto Valeiro (ESP)	258 (8.3)
15 (5)	2009 Details	Jumeirah Beach, Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Brazil	Switzerland	Portugal	Uruguay	16	Dejan Stankovic (SUI)	Dejan Stankovic (SUI)	16 goals	Mão (BRA)	269 (8.7)
16 (6)	2011 Details	Marina di Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy	Russia	Brazil	Portugal	El Salvador	16	Ilya Leonov (RUS)	André (BRA)	14 goals	Andrey Bukhlitskiy (RUS)	269 (8.4)
17 (7)	2013 Details	Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia	Russia	Spain	Brazil	Tahiti	16	Bruno Xavier (BRA)	Dmitry Shishin (RUS)	11 goals	Dona (ESP)	243 (7.6)
18 (8)	2015 Details	Praia da Baía, Espinho, Portugal	Portugal	Tahiti	Russia	Italy	16	Heimanu Taiarui (TAH)	Pedro Morán (PAR) Madjer (POR) Noël Ott (SUI)	8 goals	Jonathan Torohia (TAH)	257 (8.0)
19 (9)	2017 Details	Malcolm Park, Nassau, The Bahamas	Brazil	Tahiti	Iran	Italy	16	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh (IRN)	Gabriele Gori (ITA)	17 goals	Peyman Hosseini (IRN)	266 (8.3)
20 (10)	2019 Details	Paraguayan Olympic Committee Village, Luque, Paraguay	Portugal	Italy	Russia	Japan	16	Ozu Moreira (JPN)	Gabriele Gori (ITA)	16 goals	Elinton Andrade (POR)	286 (8.9)
21 (11)	2021 Details	Luzhniki Olympic Complex, Moscow, Russia					16

Note: In the # column, the number in parentheses is the FIFA edition; number outside parentheses is the overall edition.

Results by team

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 Portugal (2001, 2015, and 2019) with three wins, Russia (2011 and 2013) with two, 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 46 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	Titles	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	3 (2001, 2015*, 2019)	3 (1999, 2002, 2005)	5 (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011)	1 (2006)
Russia	2 (2011, 2013)	—	2 (2015, 2019)	—
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)
Italy	—	2 (2008, 2019)	1 (1996)	4 (1995, 2004, 2015, 2017)
Tahiti	—	2 (2015, 2017)	—	1 (2013*)
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	—	—	—	3 (2000, 2005, 2019)
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	35	20	31	66	11	91	254
Top 8	15	6	15	51	3	70	160
Top 4	5	0	5	31	3	36	80
Top 2	0	0	2	19	2	17	40
1st	0	0	0	14	0	6	20
2nd	0	0	2	5	2	11	20
3rd	1	0	1	7	0	11	20
4th	4	0	2	5	1	8	20

Tournament appearances

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

Since the tournament's establishment in 1995, as of the 2019 World Cup, 46 countries have participated over the 20 competitions. However, only one country has participated in all World Cups, which is Brazil. European teams have dominated in appearances by continent, since 15 of the 46 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 46 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 and Senegal (7) have appeared in the most FIFA sanctioned tournaments without having ever appeared in the old World Championships before 2005.

Apps. Country First Last Best result 20  Brazil 1995 2019 Champions 18  Italy 1995 2019 Runners-up 17  Portugal 1997 2019 Champions 16  Argentina 1995 2015 Third place  Uruguay 1995 2019 Runners-up 14  Spain 1998 2015 Runners-up  Japan 1997 2019 Fourth place  United States 1995 2019 Runners-up 12  France 1997 2008 Champions 8  Russia 1996 2019 Champions 7  Iran 2006 2017 Third place  Senegal 2007 2019 QFs 6  Mexico 2007 2019 Runners-up  UAE 2007 2019 Round 1  Nigeria 2006 2019 QFs   Switzerland 2004 2019 Runners-up 5  Peru 1998 2004 Runners-up  Solomon Isl. 2006 2013 Round 1  Tahiti 2011 2019 Runners-up 4  Germany 1995 2004 Round 1  El Salvador 2008 2013 Fourth place  Paraguay 2013 2019 QFs 3  Canada 1996 2006 QFs  Venezuela 2000 2011 QFs  Ukraine 2005 2013 QFs  Oman 2011 2019 Round 1

Apps. Country First Last Best result 2  Thailand 2002 2005 Fourth place  South Africa 1999 2005 Round 1  Cameroon 2006 2008 Round 1  Bahrain 2006 2009 QFs  Ivory Coast 2009 2013 Round 1  Netherlands 1995 2013 Round 1  Costa Rica 2009 2015 Round 1  Poland 2006 2017 Round 1 1  England 1995 Third place  Denmark 1996 Round 1  Chile 1998 Round 1  Malaysia 1999 Round 1  Turkey 2001 Round 1  Belgium 2004 Round 1  Australia 2005 Round 1  Madagascar 2015 Round 1  Bahamas 2017 Round 1  Ecuador 2017 Round 1  Panama 2017 Round 1  Belarus 2019 Round 1 Key Italics indicates pre-2005, non-FIFA World Championships Apps. – Appearances QFs – Quarter finals

Map of the nations that have appeared in any FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup by appearance Map of the best results by nation in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup   Champions   Runners-up   Semi-finals   Quarter-finals   Round 1

All-time tables

As of 2019

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 in July 2014 meaning teams now earn 1 point for a penalty shootout win;[4] teams were awarded 2 points for a shootout win prior to July 2014. 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 2014 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 20 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	20	105	95	0	3	7	780	289	+491	288	2.74
2	Portugal	17	84	52	4	4	24	451	286	+165	168	2
3	Uruguay	16	67	28	3	4	32	267	261	+6	94	1.4
4	Spain	14	56	29	1	0	26	219	205	+14	89	1.59
5	Italy	18	68	25	2	4	37	278	309	–31	79	1.16
6	Russia	8	38	24	2	0	12	176	126	+50	76	2
7	France	12	50	23	0	4	23	212	221	–9	73	1.46
8	Argentina	16	57	23	0	1	33	167	211	–44	70	1.23
9	United States	14	47	18	0	0	29	158	215	–57	54	1.15
10	Japan	14	50	15	1	2	32	172	241	–69	49	0.98
11	Tahiti	5	24	12	1	2	9	100	101	–1	40	1.67
12	Switzerland	6	24	11	1	1	11	115	116	–1	36	1.5
13	Senegal	7	25	10	1	2	12	126	101	+25	34	1.36
14	Peru	5	21	11	0	0	9	81	78	+3	33	1.57
15	Iran	7	26	6	1	1	18	95	115	–20	21	0.81
16	Nigeria	6	20	5	1	2	12	88	119	–31	19	0.95
17	Mexico	6	22	5	0	2	15	53	90	–37	17	0.77
18	Paraguay	4	13	5	0	0	8	59	56	+3	15	1.15
19	El Salvador	4	16	4	1	0	11	49	81	–32	14	0.88
20	United Arab Emirates	6	18	4	0	1	13	57	71	–14	13	0.72
21	Solomon Islands	5	15	4	0	0	11	55	105	–50	12	0.8
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	Oman	3	9	2	0	0	7	27	42	–15	6	0.67
26	Bahrain	2	7	1	0	1	5	21	38	–17	4	0.57
27	Thailand	2	7	1	0	1	5	16	34	–18	4	0.57
28	Belarus	1	3	1	0	0	2	10	13	–3	3	1
29	Denmark	1	3	1	0	0	2	10	16	–6	3	1
30	Bahamas	1	3	1	0	0	2	7	14	–7	3	1
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	Poland	2	6	1	0	0	5	24	42	–18	3	0.5
35	Germany	4	9	1	0	0	8	22	56	–34	3	0.33
36	Cameroon	2	6	0	0	1	5	12	35	–23	1	0.17
37	Netherlands	2	6	0	0	1	5	13	42	–29	1	0.17
38	Turkey	1	2	0	0	0	2	1	5	–4	0	0
39	Madagascar	1	3	0	0	0	3	7	12	–5	0	0
40	Australia	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	8	–6	0	0
41	Malaysia	1	2	0	0	0	2	4	13	–9	0	0
42	Panama	1	3	0	0	0	3	4	14	–10	0	0
43	Belgium	1	2	0	0	0	2	5	18	–13	0	0
44	Ecuador	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	22	–16	0	0
45	Costa Rica	2	6	0	0	0	6	8	31	–23	0	0
46	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 10 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	10	55	47	0	3	5	358	166	+192	144	2.62
2	Portugal	9	49	29	3	4	13	274	167	+107	97	1.98
3	Russia	7	35	23	2	0	10	169	116	+53	73	2.09
4	Spain	7	29	15	0	0	14	110	97	+13	45	1.55
5	Italy	8	32	13	2	3	14	150	126	+24	42	1.31
6	Uruguay	6	28	12	2	1	13	112	106	+6	41	1.46
7	Tahiti	5	24	12	1	2	9	100	101	–1	40	1.67
8	Argentina	8	27	13	0	1	13	85	89	–4	40	1.48
9	France	4	21	12	0	3	6	97	67	+30	39	1.86
10	Japan	10	36	12	1	1	22	132	163	–31	39	1.08
11	Senegal	7	25	10	1	2	12	126	101	+25	34	1.36
12	Switzerland	5	21	10	1	1	9	106	99	+7	33	1.57
13	Iran	7	26	6	1	1	18	95	115	–20	21	0.81
14	Nigeria	6	20	5	1	2	12	88	119	–31	19	0.95
15	Mexico	6	22	5	0	2	15	53	90	–37	17	0.77
16	Paraguay	4	13	5	0	0	8	59	56	+3	15	1.15
17	El Salvador	4	16	4	1	0	11	49	81	–32	14	0.88
18	United Arab Emirates	6	18	4	0	1	13	57	71	–14	13	0.72
19	Solomon Islands	5	15	4	0	0	11	55	105	–50	12	0.8
20	Ukraine	3	9	3	0	0	6	32	28	+4	9	1
21	United States	5	14	3	0	0	11	46	77	–31	9	0.64
22	Oman	3	9	2	0	0	7	27	42	–15	6	0.67
23	Canada	1	4	1	0	1	2	12	26	–14	4	1
24	Bahrain	2	7	1	0	1	5	21	38	–17	4	0.57
25	Belarus	1	3	1	0	0	2	10	13	–3	3	1
26	Bahamas	1	3	1	0	0	2	7	14	–7	3	1
27	Ivory Coast	2	6	1	0	0	5	26	37	–11	3	0.5
28	Poland	2	6	1	0	0	5	24	42	–18	3	0.5
29	Netherlands	1	3	0	0	1	2	6	12	–6	1	0.33
30	Cameroon	2	6	0	0	1	5	12	35	–23	1	0.17
31	Madagascar	1	3	0	0	0	3	7	12	–5	0	0
32	Australia	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	8	–6	0	0
33	Venezuela	1	3	0	0	0	3	8	17	–9	0	0
34	Panama	1	3	0	0	0	3	4	14	–10	0	0
35	Thailand	1	2	0	0	0	2	3	13	–10	0	0
36	South Africa	1	2	0	0	0	2	4	15	–11	0	0
37	Ecuador	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	22	–16	0	0
38	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	[5]
2006 Brazil	Madjer	Benjamin	Bruno	[6]
2007 Brazil	Buru	Madjer	Morgan Plata	[7]
2008 France	Amarelle	Benjamin	Belchior	[8]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Dejan Stankovic	Madjer	Benjamin	[9]
2011 Italy	Ilya Leonov	André	Frank Velasquez	[10]
2013 Tahiti	Bruno Xavier	Ozu Moreira	Raimana Li Fung Kuee	[11]
2015 Portugal	Heimanu Taiarui	Alan	Madjer	[12]
2017 Bahamas	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh	Mauricinho	Datinha	[13]
2019 Paraguay	Ozu Moreira	Jordan Santos	Bê Martins	[14]

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	[5]
2006 Brazil	Madjer	21	Benjamin	12	Bruno	10	[6]
2007 Brazil	Buru	10	Morgan Plata	9	Bruno	8	[7]
2008 France	Madjer	13	Amarelle	11	Belchior	10	[8]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Dejan Stankovic	16	Madjer	11	Buru	10	[9]
2011 Italy	André	14	Madjer	12	Frank Velásquez	9	[10]
2013 Tahiti	Dmitry Shishin	11	Bruno Xavier	10	Agustín Ruiz	7	[11]
2015 Portugal	Pedro Morán	8	Madjer	8	Noël Ott	8	[12]
2017 Bahamas	Gabriele Gori	17	Rodrigo	9	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh	9	[13]
2019 Paraguay	Gabriele Gori	16	Emmanuele Zurlo	10	Fedor Zemskov	10	[14]

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	[8]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Mão	[9]
2011 Italy	Andrey Bukhlitskiy	[10]
2013 Tahiti	Dona	[11]
2015 Portugal	Jonathan Torohia	[12]
2017 Bahamas	Peyman Hosseini	[13]
2019 Paraguay	Elinton Andrade	[14]

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	[5]
2006 Brazil	France	[6]
2007 Brazil	Brazil	[7]
2008 France	Russia	[8]
2009 United Arab Emirates	Japan  Russia	[9]
2011 Italy	Nigeria	[10]
2013 Tahiti	Russia	[11]
2015 Portugal	Brazil	[12]
2017 Bahamas	Brazil	[13]
2019 Paraguay	Senegal	[14]

Top goalscorers

As of 2019

From the data available,^[Note] the tables below document the all-time top goalscorers.

Overall (1995–present) The following table shows the all-time top 30 goalscorers. Rank Player Team Goals WC era FIFA era Total 1 Madjer  Portugal 52 88 140 2 Alan  Portugal 37 38 75 3 Júnior Negão  Brazil 54 18 72 4 Júnior  Brazil 71 0 71 5 Benjamin  Brazil 30 35 65 6 Neném  Brazil 55 9 64 7 Amarelle  Spain 32 27 59 8 Jorginho  Brazil 43 6 49 9 Belchior  Portugal 6 39 45 10 Bruno  Brazil 2 40 42 Buru  Brazil 8 34 12 Gabriele Gori  Italy 0 41 41 13 André  Brazil 1 38 39 14 Dejan Stanković   Switzerland 0 37 37 15 Venancio Ramos  Uruguay 34 0 34 16 Dmitry Shishin  Russia 0 33 33 17 Alessandro Altobelli  Italy 30 0 30 Nico  Spain 12 18 19 Juninho  Brazil 25 4 29 20 Paolo Palmacci  Italy 0 28 28 Cláudio Adão  Brazil 28 0 22 Ricardo Martinez  Uruguay 0 27 27 Hernâni  Portugal 22 5 24 Mohammad Ahmadzadeh  Iran 0 26 26 25 Edinho  Brazil 25 0 25 26 Pape Jean Koukpaki  Senegal 0 23 23 Zico  Brazil 23 0 28 Magal  Brazil 22 0 22 29 Jérémy Basquaise  France 0 21 21 Roberto Pasquali  Italy 1 20 Sidney  Brazil 0 21 Pedro Morán  Paraguay 0 21

FIFA era (2005–present) The following table shows the top 20 goalscorers of the FIFA era. Rank Player Team Goals 1 Madjer  Portugal 88 2 Gabriele Gori  Italy 41 3 Bruno  Brazil 40 4 Belchior  Portugal 39 5 Alan  Portugal 38 André  Brazil 7 Dejan Stanković   Switzerland 37 8 Benjamin  Brazil 35 9 Buru  Brazil 34 10 Dmitry Shishin  Russia 33 11 Paolo Palmacci  Italy 28 12 Amarelle  Spain 27 Ricardo Martinez  Uruguay 14 Mohammad Ahmadzadeh  Iran 26 15 Pape Jean Koukpaki  Senegal 23 16 Jérémy Basquaise  France 21 Sidney  Brazil Pedro Morán  Paraguay 19 Roberto Pasquali  Italy 20 Noël Ott   Switzerland World Championships era (1995–2004) The following table shows the top 20 goalscorers of the World Championships era. Rank Player Team Goals 1 Júnior  Brazil 71 2 Neném  Brazil 55 3 Júnior Negão  Brazil 54 4 Madjer  Portugal 52 5 Jorginho  Brazil 43 6 Alan  Portugal 37 7 Venancio Ramos  Uruguay 34 8 Amarelle  Spain 32 9 Benjamin  Brazil 30 Alessandro Altobelli  Italy 11 Cláudio Adão  Brazil 28 12 Juninho  Brazil 25 Edinho  Brazil 14 Zico  Brazil 23 15 Hernâni  Portugal 22 Magal  Brazil 17 Gabriel Silvera  Uruguay 20 18 Gustavo Matosas  Uruguay 18 19 Carlos Russo  Argentina 17 Jorge Olaechea  Peru Zak Ibsen  United States Nico  Uruguay

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, 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	Marseille, 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%
2019	Luque, Paraguay	2,820	32	34,997	216	2,847	1,094	39%
Overall (2003–2019)			344	1,295,967	150	10,000	3,767	61%

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. "FIFA World Champions Badge honours Real Madrid's impeccable year". FIFA. 20 October 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2019. The latest tournament to be introduced to this exclusive award was the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Tahiti 2013, where reigning champions Russia were awarded the FIFA World Champions Badge.
4. "Amendments to the Beach Soccer Laws of the Game - 2014" (PDF). FIFA.com. 4 July 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
5. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2005". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
6. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2006". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
7. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2007". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
8. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Marseilles 2008". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
9. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Dubai 2009". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
10. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Ravenna/Italy 2011". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
11. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Tahiti 2013". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
12. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Dubai 2009". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
13. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 Awards". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
14. "Ozu, Gori and Andrade take home individual honours". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.

External links

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