2024 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
The 2024 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 12th edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the premier international beach soccer championship contested by men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Overall, this was the 22nd edition of a world cup in beach soccer since the establishment of the Beach Soccer World Championships which ran from 1995 to 2004 but which was not governed by FIFA; all world cups took place annually until 2009 when it then became a biennial event.
This edition was originally set to be the 2023 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup; at the FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop in November 2017, it was announced that the World Cup would continue to be held biennially in odd-numbered years for the period 2018–2024. The bidding process for said edition was subsequently opened by FIFA in October 2021, concluding with the selection of the United Arab Emirates as the hosts in December 2022. The tournament was initially set to take place from 16 to 26 November 2023. However, in June 2023, the tournament was postponed until 15 to 25 February 2024, in order to provide more time to the organisers to prepare for the event. As a consequence, its original 2023 branding was dropped, and it subsequently became referred to as the 2024 edition. It took place in Dubai, the second city to host in multiple times, having also hosted the 2009 edition.
Russia won the previous edition and should have therefore been the defending champions. However, all Russian national teams are currently banned indefinitely from competing in FIFA competitions, due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The tournament was won by Brazil, who claimed their sixth FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup title, beating Italy in the final who finished as runners-up for a third time.
Host selection
The original bidding schedule to determine the hosts was as follows:- 6 October 2021 – FIFA opens the bidding process.
- 29 October 2021 – Deadline for national associations to declare interest of hosting to FIFA.
- 1 November 2021 – FIFA circulates documents detailing the application campaign and conditions of participation to the bidding associations to analyse.
- 26 November 2021 – Deadline for associations to reaffirm their bidding intentions by agreeing to the terms of the documents.
- 30 January 2022 – Deadline for nations to prepare and submit their complete bidding packages to be evaluated by FIFA.
- 31 March 2022 – Hosts announced by FIFA.
Confirmation of the awarding of hosting rights was due to be announced at the FIFA Council meeting in Doha, Qatar on 31 March 2022. However, no announcement was made; it was then due to be awarded at its meeting in Auckland, New Zealand on 22 October 2022, but it was announced at the meeting that the decision had been deferred again until a subsequent Council meeting. At the next Council meeting on 16 December 2022, in Doha, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates was awarded the hosting rights to the 2023 tournament.
Qualification
A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to the United Arab Emirates who qualified automatically as the host country, 15 other teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Council on 14 March 2023.The process of qualification to the World Cup finals began in October 2022 and ended in August 2023.
Note: The appearance statistics below refer only to the FIFA era of world cups in beach soccer ; see this article for the inclusion of World Championships era stats .
Venue
One venue was used in the city of Dubai. Despite being a coastal city with beaches, the stadium was located within the city's inland Design District; it was known by the name, Dubai Design District Stadium. It hosted all 32 matches of the competition, with a capacity to accommodate almost 3,500 spectators. The stadium was a temporary construction built purposely for the competition; its construction took just 25 days compared with typical lengths of 60 to 90 days.Draw
The draw to split the 16 teams into four groups of four took place at 18:30 GST on 6 October 2023 at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library in Dubai. The drawing of lots was performed by Bakhit Saad and Christian Karembeu. It was conducted under the following procedure:The teams were first divided into four pots of four based upon a ranking created by FIFA considering each team's performances at the World Cup over the past five editions ; the more recent the tournament, the more weight was given to those results. Bonus points were also awarded to the teams that won their confederation's championship during qualifying. Using this ranking, the best-performing teams were placed in Pot 1, the next best performers were placed in Pot 2 and so on. This resulted in the following composition pots:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
The draw started with Pot 1. As the hosts, the United Arab Emirates were automatically assigned to position A1. The highest-ranked team, Brazil, was automatically assigned to position D1. The other teams were then drawn – the first out was placed into Group B and the second, C. The teams from Pot 2 were then drawn – the first out was placed into Group A, second into B and so on. The same was repeated for Pots 3 and 4. The exact positions in the groups the teams were allocated to was determined by the drawing of lots from an auxiliary pot. Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group.
The draw resulted in the following groups:
Match officialsFrom the International Referees List, FIFA chose 24 officials from 24 different countries to adjudicate matches at the World Cup, who were revealed on 14 December 2023.At least one referee represented each of the six confederations of FIFA: four from the AFC, three from CAF, five from CONMEBOL, three from CONCACAF, one from the OFC, and eight from UEFA.
SquadsEach team had to name a preliminary squad of between 12 and 18 players. From the preliminary squad, the team had to name a final squad of 12 players by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad could be replaced by a player from the preliminary squad due to "serious" injury or illness up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.The final squad lists were revealed by FIFA on 7 February 2024. Group stageThe match schedule was published on the 6 October, following the draw.In the group stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time shall be played and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner. Each team earns three points for a win in regulation time, two points for a win in extra time, one point for a win in a penalty shoot-out, and no points for a defeat. The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals. ;Tiebreakers The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows: If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows: All times are local, GST. Group A---- ---- Group B---- ---- Group C---- ---- Group D---- ---- Knockout stage21 and 23 February are allocated as rest days.Quarter-finals-------- ---- Semi-finals----AwardsAfter the final, FIFA presented individual awards to the three best players of the tournament, three top goalscorers, and to the best goalkeeper. In addition, a collective award was given to the team with the most points in the Fair Play ranking. Following this, the winners' trophy was awarded to Brazil's captain, Datinha, by FIFA President, Gianni Infantino.Individual awardsThe individual awards were all sponsored by Adidas, except for the FIFA Fair Play Award. The Golden, Silver and Bronze Balls were awarded by FIFA's Technical Study Group, which included current and former players Dejan Stankovic, Matteo Marrucci and Pascal Zuberbühler, and led by Arsene Wenger.Sponsorship* |