Beach soccer at the 2019 World Beach Games

The men's beach soccer tournament at the 2019 World Beach Games in Doha, Qatar, the inaugural edition of the ANOC World Beach Games, took place over six days from 11–16 October.^[1] Held in tandem with the women's tournament, the two events comprised the beach soccer competition at this year's Games.^[2]

2019 Men's beach soccer tournament at the World Beach Games
Tournament details
Host country	Qatar
City	Doha
Dates	11–16 October 2019
Teams	16 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Brazil (1st title)
Runners-up	Russia
Third place	Iran
Fourth place	Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played	28
Goals scored	279 (9.96 per match)
2023 →

Organised by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), national associations of FIFA (beach soccer's governing body) from a territory with a National Olympic Committee (NOC) were invited to enter one team into preliminary qualification routes^[2] from which 16 teams, representing all six continental zones, advanced to the final competition;^[1] the hosts Qatar did not enter a team.^[3]

The tournament was a multi-stage competition, consisting of a round-robin group stage and followed by a single elimination knockout round, starting with the semi-finals and ending with the gold medal match,^[4] with all matches hosted on the Katara Beach.^[5]

Brazil claimed the gold medal after winning the final 9–3 against Russia who settled for silver. Meanwhile, Iran defeated Italy in the bronze medal match to claim the remaining place on the podium.^[6]

Competition schedule

The tournament began on 11 October, one day before the opening ceremony, and ended on the final day of the Games, 16 October.^[4]^[7]

Matches deciding medal winners took place exclusively on 16 October.^[7]

G	Group stage	SF	Semi-finals	B	Bronze medal match	F	Final / Gold medal match

Fri 11	Sat 12	Sun 13	Mon 14	Tue 15	Wed 16
G		G	G	SF	B	F

Qualified teams

The six continental zones of FIFA were each allocated a share of 16 berths at the Games,^[2] ensuring all continents would be represented at the event. The following teams qualified from their zones via regional preliminary tournaments or based on their world ranking (hosts Qatar were eligible to enter a team automatically however declined to enter):^[1]^[3]

Means of qualification	Ref.	Dates	Venue	Berths	Qualified
2019 UEFA Qualifying Tournament	^[8]^[9]	9–12 May 2019	Salou	5	Italy Russia Spain Switzerland Ukraine
2019 African Beach Games	^[10]^[11]	19–23 June 2019	Sal	2	Morocco Senegal
BSWW World Ranking (Top ranked AFC teams)	^[3]	10 July 2019^[b]	–	3	Iran Japan United Arab Emirates
BSWW World Ranking (Top ranked OFC team)	^[3]	10 July 2019^[b]	–	1	Solomon Islands^[a]
2019 CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament	^[12]^[13]	3–5 August 2019	San Salvador	2	El Salvador Mexico
BSWW World Ranking (Top ranked CONMEBOL teams)	^[1]	23 August 2019^[b]	–	3	Brazil Paraguay Uruguay
Total				16

a. Tahiti are the highest ranked team from the OFC. However, they are ineligible to enter since French Polynesia is not a member of ANOC. Therefore, the berth has been given to the OFC's next highest ranked team that is a member.^[9]

b. The dates of teams who qualified via their world ranking refer to when they were publicly revealed by the qualification organisers.

Venues

Katara Beach, Doha

The matches were held on the Katara Beach^[5] at the Beach Soccer Arena which consisted of two venues: the larger-capacity main stadium that hosted the majority of games and located adjacent, a smaller-capacity secondary stadium known as "Pitch 1" for all other matches which was only used during the group stage.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Squads

Each team could enter a squad consisting of up to 12 players. A total of up to 192 athletes were expected to compete.^[2]^[17]

Draw

The draw to split the 16 teams into four groups of four took place at 10:00 AST (UTC+3) on 27 August 2019 at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar.^[5]^[18] Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) vice-president Joan Cusco oversaw the draw.^[19]

For the purpose of the draw, the 16 teams were split into four pots of four according to their world ranking with the highest ranked teams placed in Pot 1, down to the lowest ranked teams placed in Pot 4.^[18] One team from each pot was placed into each of the four groups. Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group, except for UEFA nations for which one group was permitted to contain two.^[18] At the start of the draw, two teams from Pot 1 were automatically allocated to the groups – Brazil, as the ranking leaders, were assigned to position A1 and Russia, as the second best ranked team, were assigned to position D1.^[18]

The composition of the pots is shown below (World Ranking in parentheses):^[20]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Brazil (1); (allocated to A1) Russia (2); (allocated to D1) Italy (4) Iran (5)	Paraguay (6) Spain (7) Switzerland (8) Japan (10)	Uruguay (11) Senegal (12) United Arab Emirates (13) Mexico (15)	Ukraine (19) Morocco (20) El Salvador (28) Solomon Islands (38)

Group stage

Four of the 16 nations, the winners of each group, advance to the knockout stage.^[4]

All times are local, AST (UTC+3).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	3	3	0	23	10	+13	9	Knockout stage
2	Switzerland	3	2	1	21	19	+2	6
3	Morocco	3	1	2	8	17	−9	3
4	United Arab Emirates	3	0	3	15	21	−6	0

Source: ANOC

11 October 2019