Dates 27 April – 7 May 2017 | City Nassau Venue(s) 1 (in 1 host city) | |
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Teams 16 (from 6 confederations) | ||
The 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup will be the 9th edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the premier international beach soccer championship contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Previous editions before 2005 were not governed by FIFA and were held under the title Beach Soccer World Championships. Overall this will be the 19th edition of the World Cup since its establishment in 1995. This will be the fourth tournament to take place under the biennial basis; the World Cup now takes place once every two years, after taking place on a yearly basis between 1995 and 2009.
Contents
- First bidding
- Second bidding
- Qualified teams
- Organisation
- Draw
- Venue
- Squads
- Group stage
- Broadcasting rights
- References
FIFA originally started the bidding process in April 2013, whilst in December 2014, the Bahamas were appointed as hosts. The tournament will be played from 27 April to 7 May 2017 in the capital, Nassau. Preliminary qualifying events started in August, 2016 and will end in March, 2017.
First bidding
On 17 April 2013, FIFA announced that bidding had begun for five competitions between 2016 and 2017, including the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Declarations of interest were made by May 15 deadline whilst the hosts were scheduled to be revealed in December 2013.
The following 10 countries made an official bid for the World Cup, as revealed by FIFA on 28 May 2013.
Second bidding
Due to undisclosed circumstances, FIFA did not pick a host from the first round of bidding by December 2013. And so on 6 March 2014, FIFA announced that bidding had re-opened for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. New member associations interested in hosting submitted a declaration of interest by 15 April 2014, and provided the complete set of bidding documents by 1 October 2014.
The following 12 countries made official bids for hosting the tournament. Argentina were the only country to submit an entry in both rounds of bidding.
On 19 December 2014, the FIFA Executive Committee announced the Bahamas as hosts.
Qualified teams
A total of 16 teams qualify for the final tournament. In addition to Bahamas who qualified automatically as hosts, the other 15 teams qualify from six separate continental competitions. The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Executive Committee on 17 March 2016.
Organisation
The official emblem was unveiled on 28 July 2016.
The match schedule was announced on 30 August 2016.
The official match ball was revealed on 27 January 2017.
Draw
The official draw will be held on 28 February 2017, 20:00 EST (UTC−5), at the Atlantis Paradise Island Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.
The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams, with hosts Bahamas being allocated to position A1. The teams were seeded into their respective pots based on their BSWW Beach Soccer Rankings published on 27 February 2017, with the highest ranked teams placed into pot 1 alongside the hosts, the next highest ranked into pot 2 and so on. The identity of the AFC teams were not known at the time of the draw, so the three slots reserved for AFC teams were seeded based on the three best ranked AFC teams in the BSWW Beach Soccer Rankings, and will be allocated in the same order as they finish in the 2017 AFC Beach Soccer Championship. Teams from the same confederation can not be drawn against each other for the group stage.
Venue
One venue in the capital city of Nassau will be used.
Squads
Each team must first name a preliminary squad of 18 players. From the preliminary squad, the team must name a final squad of 12 players (two of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad may be replaced due to serious injury up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.
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. The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals. The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows (regulations Article 18.5):
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above criterion, their rankings are determined as follows:
All times are local, EDT (UTC−4).
Broadcasting rights
The following table is a summary of some notable and participating countries' broadcasting licensee holders.