Host country Italy Dates 2–11 September 2016 Champions Poland (1st title) | City Jesolo Venue(s) 1 (in 1 host city) | |
Teams 28 (from 1 confederation) | ||
The 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers for UEFA was a beach soccer tournament played in Jesolo, Italy, from 2 to 11 September 2016, which determined the four teams that qualify to the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in the Bahamas.
Contents
- Teams and draw
- First group stage
- Group F
- Ranking of third placed teams
- Second group stage
- Final stage
- Awards
- Goalscorers
- Qualified teams for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
- References
Despite having five allocated spots for European nations at the World Cup, this was reduced to four for the 2017 edition as the World Cup hosts, the Bahamas, automatically claimed one of the two spots allocated to CONCACAF. And so as the confederation with the most slots, one UEFA spot was transferred over to CONCACAF to ensure that two nations would still have the opportunity to qualify from North America.
The format of the tournament was a round-robin group stage followed by the top ranking nations competing in a second round-robin group stage. The four top ranking nations from the second group stage, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, and Italy, qualified for the World Cup and moved on to the knockout stage to ultimately crown a champion of the event, affecting seeding for the World Cup.
Teams and draw
A record 28 teams was planned to compete in this qualifier, one more than in the 2011 edition also held in Italy.
In the draw, held on 3 August 2016, teams were split into four pots according to their European ranking, and drawn into seven groups so that each group included a team from each pot.
First group stage
The top-two teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams progressed to the second group stage. All times are local time CEST (UTC+2).
Group F
^ Austria withdrew before the start of the tournament due to "administrative reasons" preventing them from travelling to Jesolo. All of the scheduled matches involving them were subsequently cancelled.
Ranking of third-placed teams
Note: Due to Austria's withdrawal, only results against the each groups' first- and second-placed teams were counted. Results against the teams that finished fourth in their group were discounted.
Second group stage
The group winners advance to the semi-finals and secure qualification for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
Final stage
The top team from each group in the second stage advance to the semi-finals to play for the title. The other teams eliminated from the second stage advance to classification play-offs (5th to 8th place, 9th to 12th place, 13th to 16th place) depending on their positions.
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.
Goalscorers
Qualified teams for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
The following four teams from UEFA qualified for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.