Host country Brazil Venue(s) 1 (in 1 host city) Runners-up Spain | Dates 29 February – 7 March Champions Brazil (9th title) | |
Teams 12 (from 3 confederations) | ||
The 2004 Beach Soccer World Championship was the tenth edition of the Beach Soccer World Championships, the most prestigious competition in international beach soccer contested by men's national teams. It was organised by Koch Tavares in partnership and under the supervision of Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the sports governing body, the last to be so before coming under the control of FIFA, ultimately being rebranded as the better known FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup the following year.
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The tournament took place at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, specifically at the purpose built Copacabana Arena which had a capacity of 10,000. The main sponsor was McDonald's.
Brazil successfully defended their title by again beating Spain, in consecutive finals.
Organisation
The format was changed back to how the tournament was played between 1999 and 2001. This meant increasing the number of participants back up to twelve teams and splitting them up into four groups of three nations contested in a round robin format. The top two teams from each group progressed into the quarter finals from which point on the championship proceeded as a knock-out tournament until the winner was crowned, with an additional third place deciding match.
Qualification
European teams gained qualification by finishing in the top four spots of the 2003 Euro Beach Soccer League. South American teams were hand-picked based on recent performances. The other entries received wild-card invites.
Africa, Asia and Oceania were unrepresented.
Draw
The teams were split into three pots in reflection of their similar circumstances. The draw to assign one nation from each pot into the four groups took place on January 29 in Sao Paulo and was conducted by BSWW.
Group stage
Matches are listed as local time in Rio de Janeiro, (UTC-3)
Knockout stage
March 3rd and 5th were allocated as rest days.