2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
The 2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 13th 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 23rd edition of a world cup in beach soccer since the establishment of the Beach Soccer World Championships which ran from 1995 to 2004 but was not governed by FIFA; the World Cup took place annually until 2009 when it then became a biennial event.
It took place in Victoria, capital of Seychelles, on Mahé island, between 1 and 11 May 2025. This was the first time that Seychelles hosted a FIFA tournament, and the first edition of the World Cup to be played in Africa.
Brazil were the defending champions and successfully retained their title, defeating Belarus 4–3 in the final to claim their seventh FIFA title, and sixteenth overall.
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 analyze.
- 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.
On 14 February 2022, FIFA announced that three of the five associations had submitted bids through to the final stage of the process, with Colombia and Thailand withdrawing.
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. On 16 December 2022, the United Arab Emirates was awarded the hosting rights for the 2023 tournament, and the Seychelles for the 2025 tournament.
Qualification
A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Seychelles 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 4 October 2023. Overall, 72 nations entered qualification.The process of qualification for the World Cup finals began in October 2024 and ended in March 2025.
Of the qualifiers, four made their debut: Chile, Guatemala, Mauritania and hosts Seychelles. This is Mauritania's and Seychelles' first ever FIFA tournament.
Paraguay and El Salvador were the returnees, both coming back after missing out on a berth in 2024.
United Arab Emirates failed to qualify for the first time since 2015. For the first instance since 2017, the United States also failed to advance to the finals. After appearing in 2024, Argentina, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico failed to qualify.
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
The single venue, named "The Paradise Arena", was located in the capital city of Victoria.The venue was the same building as was used in the 2024 edition, disassembled and transported from Dubai, and reconstructed in Victoria. It has a capacity of 3,572.
Draw
The draw to split the 16 teams into four groups of four took place at 19:00 SCT on 4 April 2025 at in Victoria. The draw was conducted by Michael Mancienne and Sunday Oliseh.The teams were divided into four pots of four based upon a ranking created by FIFA considering each team's total points at the World Cup over the past five editions ; the more recent the tournament, the more weight was given to those results, with 20% weight for the oldest year and increasing by 20% annually until 100% weight for the most recent year. 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 Seychelles 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 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 29 April 2025. All of the appointed officials are male.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 named a preliminary squad of between 12 and 18 players. From the preliminary squad, the team named a final squad of 12 players. 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 squads were revealed by FIFA on 15 April 2025. Group stageIn the group stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time should be played and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner. Each team earned 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 advanced to the quarter-finals.;Tiebreakers The rankings of teams in each group were 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, SCT. Group A-------- Group B-------- Group C-------- Group D-------- Knockout stageQuarter-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.The individual awards were all sponsored by Adidas, except for the FIFA Fair Play Award. MarketingLogoOn 3 May 2024, the official emblem and brand identity were unveiled at the Kempinski Seychelles Resort. On 3 December 2024, the official poster was revealed.Official ballOn 27 November 2024, FIFA and Adidas announced the official match ball is the Adidas CNXT25 PRO BCH.Theme songOn 3 April 2025, the official song for the tournament, entitled Boom SE SE, was announced by FIFA. The song was performed by two popular artists in the region, Elijah Seychelles and Taniah, at the draw.MascotOn 7 March 2025, the mascot was revealed: a turtle who loves football named "TiKay". The mascot pays homage to the essence of the competition's first edition to take place in Africa. Its name comes from the French word "petit," which means small, and from the abbreviated Seychellois Creole word for "scales." The passionate little turtle was born among the fine white sand dunes of Seychelles, representing the beautiful beaches, culture, and biodiversity of Africa's smallest country, as well as the crystal-clear waters that surround it. Its debut took place at Beau Vallon Beach, where the nation's President, Wavel Ramkalawan, was present. More than 40 children, coaches, and members of the Seychellois beach soccer national team joined in a beach soccer activity to promote the sport to local youth. |