2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Overall, this was the 21st 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. This was the sixth tournament to take place biennially; the World Cup took place annually until 2009. The tournament took place in Moscow, capital of Russia, between 19 and 29 August 2021.
The tournament was first intimated in November 2017 at the FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop when it was announced that the World Cup would continue to be held every two years between 2018 and 2024. The bidding process was opened by FIFA in May 2019 and concluded with the selection of Russia as the hosts in October 2019.
Portugal were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the group stage. They became the first time defending champions in the tournament's history to be eliminated in the group stage.
The hosts Russia, played as the RFU, won their third World Cup, beating Japan in the final.
The bidding schedule to determine the hosts was as follows:
On 11 September 2019, FIFA revealed that three associations had submitted bids through to the final stage of the process:
Confirmation of the awarding of hosting rights to Russia was announced at the FIFA Council meeting in Shanghai, China on 24 October 2019.
A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Russia who qualified automatically as hosts, 15 other teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Council on 25 June 2020.
The process of qualification to the World Cup finals began and ended in 2021.
The following teams qualified to the finals.
Note: The appearance statistics below refer only to the FIFA era of world cups in beach soccer (since 2005); see this article for the inclusion of World Championships era stats (1995–2004).
One purpose-built venue is being used in the city of Moscow; it is located on the grounds of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Khamovniki District.
The arena has a capacity for approximately 4,500 spectators. However, on 4 August 2021 it was announced on that the maximum attendance would be limited to 50% in order to accommodate social distancing measures due to the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. Attendees of the arena are expected to wear face coverings at all times, however neither a negative COVID-19 test nor confirmation of vaccine status is required to enter the stadium.
The original bidding documents submitted by the Russian Football Union (RFU) listed the Luzhniki Olympic Complex as the proposed venue, following the success of the location as the setting for the 2019 World Cup qualifiers for UEFA; after the Russian bid was successful, it was decided other locations would be considered. From November 2019 until January 2020, through Moscow's "Active Citizen" online platform for voting on local issues, Muscovites were invited to vote for where in the city they thought the World Cup stadium should be built. Options included the Luzhniki, Sparrow Hills, VDNKh, Victory Park and Red Square. From ~200,000 votes cast, the majority chose the Luzhniki, with 43% of the share of votes. The Luzhniki was subsequently confirmed as the venue in July 2020.
Construction of the temporary structure began on 5 July 2021, at the "Festival Square" area of the complex, outside the front of the Luzhniki Stadium; it was reported as complete on 12 August. 2,000 tons of artificial quartz sand was imported to create the playing surface. It was tested by a specialist laboratory in Canada which compared it favourably to the consistency of natural sand found on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The sand features a special coating to ensure it maintains its usual viscosity in the event of rain.
The following were some of the milestones in the organisation of the tournament (not belonging of other subsections):
The draw to split the 16 teams into four groups of four took place on at 14:00 CEST on 8 July 2021 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland. It was conducted by former Portugal captain, Madjer and former captain of the Russia national association football team, Alexey Smertin. Its procedure was as follows:
The teams were first divided into four pots of four based upon a ranking created by considering each team's performances at the World Cup over the past five editions (since 2011); the more recent the tournament, the more weight was given to those results. Bonus points were also awarded to the teams which won their confederation's championship during qualifying. Using this ranking, the best performing teams were placed in Pot 1 (plus the hosts), the next best performers were placed in Pot 2 and so on. What was the composition of the pots is shown below:
The draw started with Pot 1. As the hosts, RFU were automatically assigned to position A1. As the title holders, Portugal were automatically assigned to position D1. The other teams were then drawn – the first out was placed into Group C and the second, D. 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 a lot from an auxiliary pot.
Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group, save for UEFA, for which one group was allowed to contain two members.
FIFA has chosen 24 officials from 24 different countries to referee matches at the World Cup, who were revealed on 19 July 2021. At least one referee will represent each of the six confederations: four from the AFC, three from CAF, five from CONMEBOL, three from CONCACAF, one from the OFC and eight from UEFA.
Unlike previous World Cups, a "structured preparation programme" was used to develop an open list of candidates over two years from which the final 24 were then selected.
Each 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 14 players (three of whom must have been goalkeepers) 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 13 August 2021.
In the group stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time should be played (one period of three minutes) 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.
The rankings of teams in each group were determined as follows:
If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined as follows:
The match schedule was published on the 8 July, following the draw.
All times are local, MSK (UTC+3).
In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time should be played (a single period of three minutes) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner.
25 and 27 August were allocated as rest days.
After 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 RFU's team.
The 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 includes former players such as Claude Barrabe, Matteo Marrucci and Pascal Zuberbühler.
There were 302 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 9.44 goals per match.
12 goals
10 goals
8 goals
7 goals
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
2 own goals