The 2023 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup European Qualifiers was a beach soccer tournament contested by European beach soccer national teams who are members of UEFA. The tournament decided the four qualifiers that will go to the 2023 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. This event took place from 2–9 July in Baku, Azerbaijan.[1] The tournament was multi-stage, consisting of a pre-qualifier, final group stage round, and a knockout stage with placement matches.
Spain were the defending champions of the tournament after winning the 2021 edition, but were unable to defend their title as they lost in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup play-offs to Italy. There were no semifinals and finals, unlike in 2021; the tournament concluded after the quarterfinals, the winners of which earned UEFA's four bids to the 2023 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. These bids were won by Italy, Belarus, Ukraine, and Portugal. Olli Romrig of Germany finished as the leading goalscorer with ten goals, ahead of Denmark's Axel Damm and Switzerland's Noël Ott, both of whom finished runners-up with seven goals.
Format
The competition will begin with a pre-qualifier stage[2] from July 2 – July 4.
The final stage will be held from July 5 – July 9.[3]
The 16 teams will be split into four groups of four. Teams will three points for a win in normal time, two points for a win in extra-time, and one point for a win on penalties. The top two finishers in each group will go through to the knockout phase. Thereafter, quarter-finals, semi-finals, a third-place play-off and final will unfold. [4]
Teams
The following countries are competing in the European qualifiers either by achieving a position in the Beach Soccer World Rankings or by qualifying from the preliminaries, held from 2 to 4 July.[5]
The draw for both the pre-qualifier stage and final stage were held on 15 June 2023.[7]
First group stage
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.
As per the regulations of the second group stage draw, the statistically best qualifier from the first group stage was automatically allocated to position B3; this was Lithuania.
The other three qualifiers (Group A, Group B and the best runner-up) were placed into the groups via a draw, made after the conclusion of the first group stage. All four teams were placed in one pot. The first team drawn out was placed into Group A, second into B and so on; they were allocated to position 4 in their respective groups.
The teams finishing in fourth place in the groups of the second group stage faced each other in consolation matches to determine 13th through 16th place in the final standings.
The teams finishing in third place in the groups of the second group stage faced each other in consolation matches to determine 9th through 12th place in the final standings.
1Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
2Ukraine originally qualified. However, on 27 September 2023, it was announced that the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine had refused to sanction the Ukrainian national team's participation in the tournament, in protest at the Belarus national team being allowed to compete, whom it believes should be barred from entering due the country's role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[8] Ukraine previously qualified for, but also boycotted the 2021 World Cup due to its venue being in Russia.[9][10] They were replaced by Spain, who statistically finished in fifth place in the UEFA qualifiers[11] and therefore enter as lucky losers.
1 No qualifiers took place as the representatives were selected by the confederation. 2 CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held a joint championship for qualification. 3 Qualification was achieved through the Euro Beach Soccer League. (p) This indicates an additional play-off round, supplement to the main qualification event.
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Olli Romrig
