 | |
| Abbreviation | BSWW |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1994 (founding partners) 25 October 2000 (merger) |
| Type | International sport federation |
| Headquarters | Barcelona,Spain |
Region served | Worldwide |
| Membership | 211 national associations |
Official languages | English |
President | Joan Cuscó[1] |
Vice-president | Gabino Renales[2] |
| Affiliations | FIFA, International Olympic Committee[3] |
| Staff | <50[4] |
| Website | www |
Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) is the organisation responsible for the founding and growth of theassociation football-based sport ofbeach soccer. The founding partners of BSWW codified the rules of beach soccer in 1992, with BSWW as it is known today having been officially founded in late 2000 as a singular institution to develop the sport and organise international beach soccer competitions across the globe, primarily between national teams.[5] The company is recognised as playing the biggest role in helping to establish the rules of beach soccer and to spread and evolve the sport around the world, as cited byFIFA, who took on governing body status of the sport from BSWW in 2005.[6] Having established the sport's key regulations, FIFA acknowledged BSWW's framework, making their rules the official laws of beach soccer.
Beach Soccer Worldwide, with FIFA's assistance, continues to be the main organisation that arranges beach soccer tournaments and fosters the sport's development around the world, mainly in Europe, including the Euro Beach Soccer League, BSWW exhibition tour events and others, having involved over 110 national teams in the sport, and created new club competitions.[7][8] Its founders also established theBeach Soccer World Championships; in 2005, BSWW created a partnership with FIFA to manage the tournament as theFIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the only major international beach soccer tournament that BSWW does not have a hand in organising, being entirely a FIFA competition.[9]
Members of the organisation serve on FIFA's Beach Soccer Committee. The first international matches were played in 1993 for men and 2009 for women.[10][11] As of July 2023, 193 men's/64 women's clubs and 101 men's/23 women's national teams were sorted in the world rankings.[12]
BSWW's routes are traced back to 1992 with the establishment of the official rules of the sport by Giancarlo Signorini, the founding partner ofBeach Soccer Company (BSC).[5][13] In 1992, Signorini staged a pilot event inLos Angeles in order to test out and perfect these rules which remain very similar today. In July 1993, with the aid of his own company, BSI, Signorini organised the first professional beach soccer event, held onMiami Beach,Florida. A keen interest was taken by Brazilian sports marketing agency, Koch Tavares, who replicated the event in 1994 inRio de Janeiro,Brazil and Viking Graham Sports Group, aPhiladelphia based investment group, acquired BSI's rights to stage professional beach soccer events, forming a partnership with Signorini to createBeach Soccer Company.[5][14]
Koch Tavares and BSC went on to be the main two entities involved in promoting beach soccer for the rest of the 1990s, with the former responsible for organising theBeach Soccer World Championships beginning in 1995, and the latter establishing thePro Beach Soccer Tour in 1996, a series of worldwide professional exhibition tournaments to promote the sport, and theEuropean Pro Beach Soccer League in 1998, all contested between national teams as opposed to clubs. BSC relocated toMonaco in 1998 and again to Barcelona in 1999, renaming to becomePro Beach Soccer, S.L. (PBS) in 2000 to reflect the branding of their established events.[5]
In October 2000,[15] the entity of Koch Tavares responsible for beach soccer and PBS came together to register one single company in order to streamline development of the sport under one unifying company, as opposed to multiple parties involved trying to synchronise progress between one another, officially forming Beach Soccer Worldwide, opting to remain based in Barcelona.[5][16] Starting with the 2001 season, BSWW took on roles of organising all major competitions of the preceding companies including thePro Beach Soccer Tour andEuropean Pro Beach Soccer League, whilst supervising theWorld Championships and the newly created America's League, all remaining focused on national teams. This was also done to make it easier to bring on board sponsors, coordinate media coverage and present the football alternative to FIFA under a clearly defined, all-encompassing, representative body for beach soccer.[5]
BSWW's attention immediately turned to FIFA. Beach Soccer Company had already ensured all tournaments from 2000 onwards were played underFIFA's fair play rules and delegates from both parties met multiple times to discuss for BSWW's rules of the sport and competitions to gain recognition and backing of football's governing body.[17] By 2002, FIFA had come to an agreement with BSWW to adopt the rules and regulations that had been established over the previous decade, with some minor changes to ensure FIFA's interest in key components of regular football were respected and acknowledging key major tournaments in the sport including the World Championships.[18] During this time, BSWW also brought on board major sponsors such asMasterCard,McDonald's andCoca-Cola for certain time period.[6]
The involvement with FIFA was furthered in 2004 whenFIFA Beach Soccer S.L. was established in agreement and partnership with BSWW, to take over responsibility of the World Championships, being beach soccer's primary tournament, to become an official FIFA competition.[19] The newly namedFIFA Beach Soccer World Cup would start in 2005, with BSWW staff acting as advisers. It was also agreed that FIFA would become the sport's governing body, taking over from BSWW.[9]
However at this time FIFA also recognised BSWW as the main entity behind past and more importantly continuing promotion and development of the sport elsewhere besides the new World Cup,[6] and so BSWW retained the organisation responsibilities and control of other beach soccer championships like the EBSL, with FIFA only taking full control of the World Cup.[7] So much so that after the first successful World Cup in 2005, when FIFA established World Cup qualifying tournaments to promote the sport across all confederations to start in 2006, all responsibility was handed to BSWW to organise and execute such events, with FIFA only supervising.[20]
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Since then, BSWW has continued to develop the sport worldwide, now aided greatly with FIFA's beach soccer training courses and refereeing.[21][22] The Euro Beach Soccer League (dropping thepro from the title in 2004 as it was no longer reflecting of the company name)[23] has remained BSWW's main asset, gathering up to 27 nations to compete in recent editions compared to just 7 in the first event in 1998 in a summer-long event. The Pro Beach Soccer Tour has also been renamed to the BSWW Tour for the same reasons, continuing exhibition events to promote the sport as far wide and remote asRéunion andCape Verde with around 10 tour events a year.[24] BSWW has continued organising the World Cup qualifiers, as well as establishing new regular international competitions such as theIntercontinental Cup (similar to theFIFA Confederations Cup) since 2011 and generating more interest from big sponsors likeSamsung[25] andHuawei.[26]
BSWW representatives, in partnership with FIFA, have liaised with theInternational Olympic Committee a number of times, with Olympic-affiliated events such as theAsian Beach Games integrating beach soccer from 2008 onward, theSouth American Beach Games from 2009 and theEuropean Games starting from 2015. The ultimate aim is to have beach soccer a sport in thesummer Olympics.[27][28][29] But despite a campaign for inclusion in theRio 2016 andTokyo 2020 Olympics.,[29] the sport was ultimately not included and so lobbying in cooperation with FIFA continues,[citation needed] to ultimately fulfil the goal of making beach soccer an Olympic sport. In 2017, BSWW secured beach soccer as a sport at the inaugural Olympic-affiliatedWorld Beach Games in 2019 and hope to use its inclusion as a springboard for future absorption into the Summer Olympics.[citation needed]
More recently, a greater involvement from certain confederations in organising World Cup qualifying championships has eased the full involvement of BSWW,[30] allowing the federation to promote the club side of the game more, establishing theMundialito de Clubs (Club World Cup) in 2011[31] and theEuro Winners Cup (similar to theUEFA Champions League) in 2013.[32]
Development of the women's game has also become a target for BSWW, with the first official game between Switzerland and Germany in 2009,[33] promoting further international exhibition tournaments and friendlies involving nations such as England, Italy and the Czech Republic, with the Euro Winners Cup having a 16-club women's version for the first time in 2016[34] and the first Women'sEuro Beach Soccer Cup also taking place in 2016.
BSWW has organised and delivered over 200 international events in more than 50 countries worldwide, involving over 110 nations from all confederations, assembling an audience of over 250 million households in 180 countries.[8] Vice-president Joan Cuscó continues to serve on FIFA's Beach Soccer committee as BSWW's representative.[35] In 2017, BSWW and FIFA agreed to extend their partnership until at least 2024.[36]
| 2018 individual award winners | |
|---|---|
| Best player |  Llorenç Gomez |
| Best goalkeeper |  Elinton Andrade |
| Best coach |  Gilberto Costa |
| Rising star |  Mohammad Moradi |
| Best goal | Eduard Suarez |
| Best women's player |  Marina Fedorova |
It has been standard practice for BSWW to award prizes to the top scorer,MVP and best goalkeeper at the conclusion every event of their organisation. However, in 2014, BSWW took this concept of awards to a new level, establishing beach soccer's first annual end of seasonawards ceremony, taking place during November inDubai.[37] The ceremony, a gala event attended by many of the world's leading figures in the sport, celebrates the achievements of top performers worldwide over the course of the season[38] and has been compared toFIFA's The Best awards and theBallon d'Or inassociation football,[39] in both importance, grandeur and equivalence for those involved in beach soccer.
Some of the many prizes awarded on the night include best player of the year, best coach of the year, best goal and best team.[40]
BSWW organises and has an input in many different competitions; the following are regular events that are ongoing:[41]
Advisory role:
Considerable input, with involvement from confederations, under the supervision of FIFA:
Affiliation only:
| Competition | Year | Champions | Title | Runners-up | Next edition[42][43] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global | |||||||||
| FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup | 2025(Final) | Brazil | 6th |  Belarus | 2027(Final) | ||||
| World Beach Games | 2019(Final) | Brazil | 1st | Russia | 2027(Final) | ||||
| Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup | 2022(Final) | Iran | 4th | Brazil | TBA | ||||
| Mediterranean Beach Games | 2023 | Spain | 1st | Portugal | 2027 | ||||
| BSWW Mundialito | 2023 | Brazil | 15th |  United Arab Emirates | TBA | ||||
| Africa | |||||||||
| Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations | 2024(Final) |  Senegal | 8th |  Mauritania | 2026(Final) | ||||
| Asia | |||||||||
| AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup | 2025(Final) | Iran | 4th |  Oman | 2026(Final) | ||||
| Asian Beach Games | 2016 |  Japan | 1st | Oman | 2026 | ||||
| North America | |||||||||
| CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship | 2025(Final) |  El Salvador | 3rd |  Guatemala | 2027(Final) | ||||
| Oceania | |||||||||
| OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup | 2024(Final) |  Tahiti | 4th |  Solomon Islands | 2026(Final) | ||||
| South America | |||||||||
| South American Beach Games | 2023 | Brazil | 5th |  Colombia | 2023 | ||||
| FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL) | 2021(Final) | Brazil | 8th |  Uruguay | |||||
| Competition | Year | Champions | Title | Runners-up | Next edition[42][43] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | |||||||||
| European Games | 2023(Final) |  Switzerland | 1st |  Italy | 2027(Final) | ||||
| Euro Beach Soccer Cup | 2016 | Portugal | 2nd | Italy | --- | ||||
| Euro Beach Soccer League | 2025 | Italy | 4th | Spain | 2026 | ||||
| FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification (UEFA) | 2024 | Portugal | 1st | Italy | 2026 | ||||
| World Beach Games qualification (UEFA) | 2023 | Spain | 1st | Portugal | 2027 | ||||
| National teams (women) | |||||||||
| Women's Euro Beach Soccer Cup | 2019 | Russia | 2nd | Spain | 2022 | ||||
| Women's Euro Beach Soccer League | 2025 | Portugal | 1st | Spain | 2026 | ||||
| Club teams | |||||||||
| Mundialito de Clubes | 2021 | Lokomotiv Moscow | 3rd | Braga | 2022 | ||||
| Euro Winners Cup | 2025(Final) | Catania | 1st |  Kfar Qassem | 2026(Final) | ||||
| Club teams (women) | |||||||||
| Women's Euro Winners Cup | 2025 | Higicontrol Melilla | 3rd | Atlético Torroxeño | 2026 | ||||
National teams with year of first international game:
Brazil national beach soccer team (1993)
Argentina national beach soccer team (1993)
United States men's national beach soccer team (1993)Italy national beach soccer team (1993)
Chile national beach soccer team (1994)Uruguay national beach soccer team (1994)
Netherlands national beach soccer team (1995)
Germany national beach soccer team (1995)
England national beach soccer team (1995)
Mexico national beach soccer team (1995)Japan national beach soccer team (1995)
South Korea national beach soccer team (1995)
Canada national beach soccer team (1995)Russia national beach soccer team (1996)
Denmark national beach soccer team (1996)
France national beach soccer team (1996)Spain national beach soccer team (1996)
Belgium national beach soccer team (1996)
Malaysia national beach soccer team (1996)
Yugoslavia national beach soccer team (1996)Portugal national beach soccer team (1996)
Peru national beach soccer team (1998)Switzerland national beach soccer team (1998)
Austria national beach soccer team (1998)
Nigeria national beach soccer team (1998)
Paraguay national beach soccer team (1999)
South Africa national beach soccer team (1999)
Venezuela national beach soccer team (2000)
Turkey national beach soccer team (2000)
Ireland national beach soccer team (2001)
Thailand national beach soccer team (2002)
Norway national beach soccer team (2002)
Greece national beach soccer team (2003)
Sweden national beach soccer team (2004)
Poland national beach soccer team (2004)
Monaco national beach soccer team (2004)
Ukraine national beach soccer team (2005)
Hungary national beach soccer team (2005)
Australia national beach soccer team (2005)
Czech Republic national beach soccer team (2006)
Costa Rica national beach soccer team (2006)Iran national beach soccer team (2006)
China national beach soccer team (2006)
Philippines national beach soccer team (2006)United Arab Emirates national beach soccer team (2006)
Bahrain national beach soccer team (2006)
Montenegro national beach soccer team (2006)Solomon Islands national beach soccer team (2006)
Cook Islands national beach soccer team (2006)Tahiti national beach soccer team (2006)
Vanuatu national beach soccer team (2006)
Jamaica national beach soccer team (2006)
Egypt national beach soccer team (2006)
Morocco national beach soccer team (2006)
Cameroon national beach soccer team (2006)
Ivory Coast national beach soccer team (2006)Réunion national beach soccer team (2006)
Madagascar national beach soccer team (2006)Senegal national beach soccer team (2006)Israel national beach soccer team (2007)
Bulgaria national beach soccer team (2007)
Romania national beach soccer team (2007)
Estonia national beach soccer team (2007)
Cape Verde national beach soccer team (2007)
Mozambique national beach soccer team (2007)
India national beach soccer team (2007)El Salvador national beach soccer team (2007)
New Zealand national beach soccer team (2007)
Azerbaijan national beach soccer team (2008)
Uzbekistan national beach soccer team (2008)
Latvia national beach soccer team (2008)
Slovakia national beach soccer team (2008)
Andorra national beach soccer team (2008)
Georgia national beach soccer team (2008)
Lithuania national beach soccer team (2008)
Kuwait national beach soccer team (2008)Oman national beach soccer team (2008)
Libya national beach soccer team (2008)
Algeria national beach soccer team (2008)
Yemen national beach soccer team (2008)
Indonesia national beach soccer team (2008)
Timor-Leste national beach soccer team (2008)
Vietnam national beach soccer team (2008)
Laos national beach soccer team (2008)
Brunei national beach soccer team (2008)
Myanmar national beach soccer team (2008)
Qatar national beach soccer team (2008)
Mauritius national beach soccer team (2008)
Ecuador national beach soccer team (2009)
Fiji national beach soccer team (2009)
Moldova national beach soccer team (2009)
Finland national beach soccer team (2009)Colombia national beach soccer team (2009)
Somalia national beach soccer team (2009) ?
Syria national beach soccer team (2010)
Saudi Arabia national beach soccer team (2010)
Kazakhstan national beach soccer team (2010)
Palestine national beach soccer team (2010)
Jordan national beach soccer team (2010)Guatemala national beach soccer team (2010)
Lebanon national beach soccer team (2010)
Iraq national beach soccer team (2011)
Bangladesh national beach soccer team (2011)
Nepal national beach soccer team (2011)
Maldives national beach soccer team (2011)
Sri Lanka national beach soccer team (2011)
Afghanistan national beach soccer team (2012)
Dominican Republic national beach soccer team (2012)
Albania national beach soccer team (2012)
New Caledonia national beach soccer team (2013)
Puerto Rico national beach soccer team (2013)
Trinidad and Tobago national beach soccer team (2013)
Zanzibar national beach soccer team (2014) Unofficial
Uganda national beach soccer team (2014)
Bolivia national beach soccer team (2014)
Kenya national beach soccer team (2015)
Ghana national beach soccer team (2015)
Seychelles national beach soccer team (2015)
Belize national beach soccer team (2015)
Panama national beach soccer team (2015)
Antigua and Barbuda national beach soccer team (2015)
Barbados national beach soccer team (2015)
Guadeloupe national beach soccer team (2015)
Turks and Caicos Islands national beach soccer team (2015)
U.S. Virgin Islands national beach soccer team (2015)
Malta national beach soccer team (2015)
Guyana national beach soccer team (2017)
Bonaire national beach soccer team (2019)
Kyrgyzstan national beach soccer team (2019)
Malawi national beach soccer team (2022)
Tanzania national beach soccer team (?)
Tunisia national beach soccer team (?)
Burundi national beach soccer team (?)
Comoros national beach soccer team (?)
Djibouti national beach soccer team (?)
Liberia national beach soccer team (?)
Mali national beach soccer team (?)
Sudan national beach soccer team (?)
DR Congo national beach soccer team (?)
Tonga national beach soccer team (?)
Croatia national beach soccer team (?)
Equatorial Guinea national beach soccer team (?)Switzerland women's national beach soccer team (2009)Germany women's national beach soccer team (2009)Portugal women's national beach soccer team (2010)
Haiti women's national beach soccer team (2010)Dominican Republic women's national beach soccer team (2010)Italy women's national beach soccer team (2011)Czech Republic women's national beach soccer team (2011)
Bahamas women's national beach soccer team (2012)Turks & Caicos Islands women's national beach soccer team (2012)England women's national beach soccer team (2014)Greece women's national beach soccer team (2016)Spain women's national beach soccer team (2016)Netherlands women's national beach soccer team (2016)Mexico women's national beach soccer team (2017)Russia women's national beach soccer team (2018)Algeria women's national beach soccer team (2019)Cape Verde women's national beach soccer team (2019)Belarus women's national beach soccer team (2019)El Salvador women's national beach soccer team (2019)United States women's national beach soccer team (2019)Brazil women's national beach soccer team (2019)Paraguay women's national beach soccer team (2019)Argentina women's national beach soccer team (2019)Chile women's national beach soccer team (2019)Ukraine women's national beach soccer team (2021)Sweden women's national beach soccer team (2022)Trinidad and Tobago women's national beach soccer team (2022)Poland women's national beach soccer team (2022)| Top 10 Rankings – January 2022[44] | ||||
| Rank | Change | Team | Points | Confederation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Russia | 4032 | UEFA |
| 2 | | Portugal | 3042 | UEFA |
| 3 | | Brazil | 2523 | CONMEBOL |
| 4 | | Japan | 2404 | AFC |
| 5 |  | Senegal | 2257 | CAF |
| 6 |  | Spain | 2249 | UEFA |
| 7 | | Switzerland | 2234 | UEFA |
| 8 | | Italy | 1975 | UEFA |
| 9 | | Uruguay | 1380 | CONMEBOL |
| 10 | | Paraguay | 1322 | CONMEBOL |
BSWW established a ranking system for European teams in the mid-2000s as the majority of tournaments are held in Europe and it is the most active continent for national teams. Hence the ranking was used for seeding in competitions like the EBSL.[45][46] However, in 2014, BSWW created the first world ranking table based on a similar system toFIFA's world ranking for association football national teams.[47]
Official Global Partners:
Official partners:
Technical Partners:
Beach Soccer Worldwide extends its commitment beyond purely sport development. In 2009, the Beach Soccer Foundation was created by BSWW to tackle three main issues surrounding the sport:[48]
Gabino Renales
Internationalbeach soccer | ||
|---|---|---|
| Asia |  | |
| Africa | ||
| North America Central America and Caribbean | ||
| South America | ||
| Oceania | ||
| Europe | ||
| Games | ||