2008 Euro Beach Soccer League
The 2008 Euro Beach Soccer League, was the eleventh edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), the premier beach soccer competition contested between European men's national teams, occurring annually since its establishment in 1998. The league was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) between June 20 and August 24, 2008. Unprecedented organisational changes had to be made to the EBSL in 2008 leading to a drastically shorter season than usual – just two regular season stages were scheduled due to a clash of dates with the arrangements of the 2008 FIFA Beach Soccer World  Cup, the first edition to take place in Europe. As a result of the shorter season, BSWW also abandoned the concept of Divisions A and B, opting to have the teams compete in one collective division regardless of ability. Portugal entered the tournament as defending champions and successfully retained their title, beating the Netherlands in the final to claim their third European crown. Portugal became only the second team after Spain to defend the EBSL crown as incumbent champions, after the Spanish did so twice in 2000 and 2001. The Netherlands, as runners-up, claimed their best finish and only  top four placing to date. This was the first time this decade that the league did not double as the European qualification process for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. In 2008, a dedicated World Cup qualifying competition for UEFA nations was established, replacing the EBSL as the qualifying route for European teams from this year onward. Organisational changes. BSWW were forced to make radical changes to the organisation of the 2008 EBSL season due to circumstances regarding the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Until 2007, the World Cup took place in the Southern Hemisphere nation of Brazil, during the  summer months (November to February), leaving the European summer of June to September free for the EBSL to take place uninterrupted. However, in 2008, FIFA organised the first World Cup to take place in France, taking advantage of the Northern Hemisphere summer, in July – right in the middle of the typical EBSL season. This greatly affected the scheduling of the EBSL as BSWW could not organise as many rounds of regular season fixtures as usual due to European teams in preparation for, participation in and recovery from the World Cup over the course of July and beginning of August. This  meant only two regular season stages were organised, considerably less than usual. To accommodate all teams in just two stages, the classic Divisions A and B were also scrapped for this season – all participating nations of varying beach soccer abilities took part in one single division. 17 teams took part in the season, all in one collective division. 16 nations participating during the regular season, one set of eight in stage one and the remaining eight in stage two. The 17th nation, Portugal, were awarded a bye into Superfinal as explained in the above key. Regular season. Format explanation. The  formats of the two regular season stages were organised as unconventional double elimination tournaments as explained below. The top three teams from each stage earned qualification to the Superfinal as well as the best fourth placed team from stage 1 or 2 as per the cumulative standings. Stage 1. The first stage took place in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy. Stage 2. The second stage took place in Tignes, France. Cumulative standings. The top three placing nations from each stage qualified for the Superfinal, along with the statistically best of the two fourth placing teams, as per the below table. The teams  are ranked in order of their final placings in the stage they participated in. The two teams that finished in the same corresponding final placing in each of the stages (i.e. Spain finished 6th in stage 1 as did Turkey in stage 2) are then split based on which of the nations earned the most points and then on the best goal difference. Superfinal. The Superfinal took place in Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal. Format This season the Superfinal was played as a straight knockout tournament. All eight teams contesting the title started in the quarter-finals, playing one  match per round until the final when the winner of the 2008 Euro Beach Soccer League was crowned. The losers of the quarter-finals played in consolation matches to determine their final placements. Seedings Automatic entrants Portugal were assigned the number 1 seed. The other seeds, numbers 2–8, were allocated based on the order of the qualified nations in the cumulative standings. The top seed were drawn against the eighth seed, second seed against the seventh seed and so on.