*Change since October 2023; Parentheses show the team's confederation rank.
The BSWW World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in beach soccer, calculated by the sport's developmental body, Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW).[2] The rankings are currently led by Brazil[1] who have held the number one spot since March 2023.[3]
The teams (both member nations of FIFA – the sport's governing body – and non-members) are ranked using a "points-per-event system", whereby the ranking of the team in the final standings of each event they participate in awards that team a certain number of points; the teams that accumulate the most points are ranked highest.[2]
The rankings were introduced in February 2014 and were originally updated monthly;[4] since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, new issues have been released at irregular intervals. To date, only three teams (Russia, Portugal and Brazil) have held the top position, of which Brazil have spent the longest ranked first.
Since the 2000s, BSWW had been producing a European ranking; it was used to seed the teams in regional events. At each competition the teams played in, they earned points depending on their final position (an approach also adapted for use in the world ranking).[6]
BSWW believed creating a world ranking would help teams, national associations and fans in understanding the "reality of beach soccer".[4]
The ranking was first presented at the 2nd FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop in Dubai from 22 to 23 November 2013 to representatives of over 100 national associations who debated the composition of its materialisation.[4][7]
In building the initial version of the ranking, BSWW took into account "many aspects and factors" used to create the FIFA World Rankings.[8] Points earned from events over the previous five years (2009–13) were observed to include the outcomes of the three previous World Cups, therefore providing "an extensive results record and a solid criteria" for its basis; the results of over 1400 matches from ~100 events were integrated into the ranking. The weight of a team's points was reduced by 20% going back year on year.[8]
The finalised version was subsequently released on 6 February 2014;[4] for succeeding updates, the current calculation method immediately superseded the method use to create the initial ranking.[b][8]
The teams are ranked using a "points-per-event system"; in each event they participate, the teams will earn ranking points (providing the event is sanctioned by BSWW and/or FIFA) – the number of points they earn is determined by their placement in the final standings of that event. The higher in the standings the team finishes, the more points they will earn. Runners-up receive 25% less points than the champions; for most subsequent places, they receive 20% less points than the position above.
BSWW have divided the different types of competitions on the calendar into eight tiers of prestige for the purposes of the world ranking. Higher tier events that are deemed to be the most prestigious reward teams with more points than lower tier events.
The following table shows exactly how many points a team will earn per their final position at each type of event:
Key:
Symbol
Description
†
a) The points on offer vary for each continent due to the perceived strength of the different confederations. Strength is calculated by considering interconfederation matches at the last three FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups. The confederations that win the most points on average from these matches are considered strongest and therefore receive more points in tier 3 tournaments than the weaker ones.
b) Continental championships also act as qualification tournaments to the World Cup (WC). Since the WC hosts qualify automatically, sometimes they do not compete in their respective continental championship. To compensate for their induced absence, the team is automatically awarded with a set of points – the average they have earned from their last three appearances in the championship.
∇
Applies to Europe only – note that unlike any other competitions, points earned from regular season events expire from a team's ranking points total immediately after the end of the league season, not after the usual four year limit.
‡
Premium and Category 1 events are organised by BSWW; they involve a larger number of FIFA referees, more BSWW delegates, higher stadium standards and more TV coverage than Category 2 events.
∆
In the event a friendly ends in a tie, both teams receive 5 points.
—
This position is never applicable to this competition.
Only the total points earned from the above events over the last four years (counting back from the current month) go towards the team's ranking; points older than four years expire and do not count.
The four years in question are assessed as individual twelve month periods; the total points earned during each period are weighted differently to put an emphasis on the value of points earned more recently. 100% of a team's total points gained during the last twelve months count towards their ranking. However, from the three preceding twelve month periods, only a portion of their points earned during each count towards their ranking; the portion that counts gets smaller the further back in time the period in question is which are 75%, 50% and 25% of their original points totals respectively.
This is illustrated/summarised in the table below:
For the current ranking month: January 2024
Example calculation
Time when points were earned
Period assessed in current ranking
% of points total counted
Points earned during period
Points counted towards ranking
Up to 1 year ago
February 2023 – January 2024
100%
500
x1.00 = 500
1 to 2 years ago
February 2022 – January 2023
75%
500
x0.75 = 375
2 to 3 years ago
February 2021 – January 2022
50%
500
x0.50 = 250
3 to 4 years ago
February 2020 – January 2021
25%
500
x0.25 = 125
2000
1250
World number 1 teams
Ranking leaders
Timeline of BSWW World Ranking leaders
Three teams have been ranked world number 1, namely Russia, Portugal and Brazil. The rank leaders have roughly coincided with the team that is reigning World Cup champions during that time.
When the rankings debuted in February 2014, Russia were the inaugural leaders, having amassing over 5000 points[4] thanks to winning the 2011 and 2013 World Cup and Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) titles. Portugal won the next World Cup in July 2015 and the EBSL in the August; Russia finished third in both. Despite Portugal's successes, they were not enough to knock Russia off the top spot until June 2016.[9] Portugal relinquished their world crown to Brazil in May 2017 who immediately took the number 1 ranking[10] and subsequently overtook Russia as the team longest ranked the world's best in October 2019. Portugal regained the World Cup title in December 2019, cutting Brazil's lead to a mere 240 points, but nevertheless the South American's clung on to the number 1 spot in the immediate aftermath of the tournament.[11] Their near three-year stay at the top of the ranking finally ended with the release of the March 2020 listings, with world champions Portugal replacing them at the peak by a slender 21 points,[12] becoming the first team to spend a second spell as number 1.[13] Russia then began their second spell as ranking leaders after a five year gap, in August 2021, immediately after claiming the 2021 World Cup.[14] By January 2022, they had spent enough time at the summit during this spell to regain the record of team longest ranked the world's best cumulatively. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine then occurred in February; as a result, Russia were suspended from participating in BSWW competitions in accordance with sanctions imposed by FIFA and UEFA in response to the conflict.[15][16] Subsequently, they were powerless in surrendering the top spot back to Portugal by November.[17] However, Portugal's third spell as world number 1 would ultimately by the shortest of any incumbent to date, as within just a few months, a series of titles, primarily the 2023 Copa América, saw Brazil earn enough points to return to the pinnacle after three years,[3] later leapfrogging Russia to have amassed the most time at number 1 once again by January 2024.
Movers of the Month was (2015–2021) a commendation bestowed by BSWW with the release of each new update to the rankings to give recognition to the team that during that month (providing that they had played) had moved up the rankings the most or the team which had gained the most points. It began with the September 2015 update when Power Horse [de] became official sponsors of the rankings,[18] started to be awarded infrequently and at irregular intervals following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has stopped being awarded entirely since the end of 2021.
Towards the tail end of its existence, in 2020, BSWW began awarding the commendation to teams part of the club rankings and women's national teams as well; the following tables list the men's national teams winners of Movers of the Month:
BSWW formally published a series of new rankings to accompany the primary men's national team world rankings in December 2018, all of which were concerned purely with European sides.[19] In November 2019, these rankings were upgraded from being only European based, to fully global rankings (save for the association ranking).[20] Unlike the men's world ranking, they are not updated monthly.[19]
Each ranking category, and the basis of each (at the release of the current issue), is listed below.
Women's clubs: Ranked based on recent performances in the Women's Euro Winners Cup and World Winners Cup.
Men's national associations (Europe only): Ranked based on recent performances of the clubs representing them in the Euro Winners Cup, therefore determining which European leagues have the best quality of clubs (inspired by the UEFA country coefficient ranking).[21]
The club rankings are used to seed teams in European competitions. Similar to the UEFA coefficient's relationship with the UEFA Champions League, the association ranking is used to determine the number of clubs that qualify from each country's domestic league to the next edition of the Euro Winners Cup; better quality associations receive more berths.[21]
The following tables show the top ten in each ranking's current issue:
^ abRussia are currently suspended from the rankings. However, their name still appears on the official ranking list, in the place of their last position before suspension. But furthermore, they are listed without a ranking or points attached.[1]
^ abAs of the current calculation method date stated, the ranking system has remained largely the same throughout its existence, with the exception of some minor alterations that have been introduced gradually over time, most notably the addition of new competition tiers (for example, the World Beach Games have only existed since 2019). Temporary changes to the points distribution of some events were also made in consideration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
Brazil
1
Spain
1
Portugal
Russia
Paraguay
Switzerland
Japan
Italy
United Arab Emirates
Senegal
Iran
Colombia
El Salvador
United States
Argentina
Morocco
Uruguay
Ukraine
Oman
Belarus
Tahiti
Mexico
Venezuela
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Costa Rica
