Beach soccer at the 2023 World Beach Games – Qualification (UEFA)

The UEFA qualifiers for the 2023 World Beach Games, known officially as the ANOC World Beach Games European Qualifier Catania 2022, was a beach soccer tournament contested by European national teams who are members of UEFA that took place to determine the nations from Europe that qualified to the beach soccer events at the second edition of the ANOC World Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia.^[1]

Beach soccer at the 2023 World Beach Games – Qualification (UEFA)
2023 World Beach Games Qualifier – Europe
Official event logo.
Tournament details
Host country	Italy
Dates	29 August – 4 September 2022
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
№ of events	2 (1 men's; 1 women's)
Teams	20 (from 14 countries)
Men's event
Teams	13
Final positions Champions  Spain Runners-up  Portugal Third place  Ukraine
Matches played	31
Goals scored	292 (9.42 per match)
Women's event
Teams	7
Final positions Champions  England Runners-up  Ukraine Third place  Spain
Matches played	14
Goals scored	86 (6.14 per match)
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The tournament consisted of two events: the men's qualifiers and the women's qualifiers, both round robin and knockout competitions from which the top five teams qualified from the former and the top four teams qualified from the latter.^[2]

Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the competition took place in Catania, Italy from 29 August – 4 September 2022.^[3] The men's defending champions were Russia, but they were banned from entering the competition due to invasion of Ukraine;^[4][5] Spain won the men's title on this occasion.^[6] The women's defending champions were England,^[7] who successfully defended the title.^[6]

Venue

The matches took place at the Sicily Arena Beach Stadium on Playa di Catania (Catania Beach).^[3]

Men's tournament

Teams

13 teams entered the men's event.^[2] The entrants are listed below, ordered by their European Ranking in parentheses:^[8]

1.  Portugal (2)
2.   Switzerland (3)
3.  Spain (4)
4.  Italy (5)
5.  Ukraine (7)
6.  Germany (8)
7.  France (9)
8.  Turkey (10)
9.  Azerbaijan (11)
10.  Moldova (15)
11.  Norway (18)
12.  Czech Republic (19)
13.  Sweden (23)

Draw

The draw to split the 13 teams into four groups – three of three teams and one of four – took place at 11:00 CEST (UTC+2) on 8 August 2022 at the headquarters of BSWW in Barcelona, Spain. Its procedure was as follows:^[2][9]

For the purpose of the draw, the 13 teams were split into four pots according to their world ranking – the hosts and three highest ranked teams were seeded and assigned to the heads of the groups; the next highest ranked teams were then placed in Pot 1, down to the lowest ranked team placed in Pot 3.

One team from Pot 1 and one team from Pot 2 were drawn into the four groups. The sole team in Pot 3 was drawn at random into one of the groups.

The composition of the pots is shown below:

Seeds	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Italy (hosts) (assigned to A1)  Portugal (assigned to B1)   Switzerland (assigned to C1)  Spain (assigned to D1)	Ukraine  Germany  France  Turkey	Azerbaijan  Moldova  Norway  Czech Republic	Sweden

Group stage

The group stage took place from 29–31 August.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ITA	FRA	NOR
1	Italy (H)	2	2	0	0	0	22	5	+17	6	Quarterfinals		—	5–1	17–4
2	France	2	1	0	0	1	6	6	0	3			—	—	5–1
3	Norway	2	0	0	0	2	5	22	−17	0	9th–12th place semifinals		—	—	—

Source: BSWW
(H) Host

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		POR	GER	MDA
1	Portugal	2	2	0	0	0	18	6	+12	6	Quarterfinals		—	12–3	6–3
2	Germany	2	1	0	0	1	8	14	−6	3			—	—	5–2
3	Moldova	2	0	0	0	2	5	11	−6	0	9th–12th place semifinals		—	—	—

Source: BSWW

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SUI	UKR	AZE
1	Switzerland	2	2	0	0	0	14	7	+7	6	Quarterfinals		—	7–3	7–4
2	Ukraine	2	1	0	0	1	8	11	−3	3			—	—	5–4
3	Azerbaijan	2	0	0	0	2	8	12	−4	0	9th–12th place semifinals		—	—	—

Source: BSWW

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ESP	TUR	CZE	SWE
1	Spain	3	3	0	0	0	20	10	+10	9	Quarterfinals		—	6–4	7–3	—
2	Turkey	3	2	0	0	1	16	9	+7	6			—	—	4–2	8–1
3	Czech Republic	3	1	0	0	2	11	12	−1	3	9th–12th place semifinals		—	—	—	6–1
4	Sweden	3	0	0	0	3	5	21	−16	0			3–7	—	—	—

Source: BSWW

Knockout stage

9th–12th place

	9th–12th place semifinals				Ninth place match
	1 September; 13:30; Report
	Moldova	5
					3 September; 08:30; Report
	Czech Republic	3
					Moldova	2
	1 September; 16:15; Report
					Azerbaijan	5
	Azerbaijan	6
	Norway	3
					Eleventh place match
					2 September; 08:30; Report
					Czech Republic	8
					Norway	2

1st–8th place

The quarter-finals winners, plus the winners of the fifth place match, qualify to the 2023 World Beach Games.

Fifth place match

5th–8th place semifinals

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

2 September; 17:30; Report

Italy

4

3 September; 17:30; Report

Ukraine (a.e.t.)

5

3 September; 12:15; Report

Italy

5

Ukraine

4

Germany

4

2 September; 13:45; Report

Spain

7

Spain

8

4 September; 16:15; Report

Germany

3

4 September; 17:30; Report

Italy

5

Spain

6

France

1

2 September; 15:00; Report

Portugal

2

Portugal

11

3 September; 11:00; Report

Turkey

4

3 September; 13:35; Report

Seventh place match

Turkey

2

Portugal

8

Third place match

4 September; 11:00; Report

France

4

2 September; 12:15; Report

Switzerland

4

4 September; 12:15; Report

Germany

2

Switzerland

9

Ukraine

4

Turkey

1

France

6

Switzerland

3

Awards

Winners trophy

2023 World Beach Games – Europe Qualifier champions
Spain First title

Individual awards

Top scorer
Chiky Ardil
11 goals
Best player
Chiky Ardil
Best goalkeeper
Dona

Source: BSWW

Top goalscorers

Players who scored at least four goals are listed.

There were 292 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 9.42 goals per match.

11 goals

• Chiky Ardil

10 goals

• Léo Martins

9 goals

• Emmanuele Zurlo
• Gabriele Gori

8 goals

• Amid Nazarov
• Bê Martins

6 goals

• André Lourenço
• Noël Ott

5 goals

• Miguel Pintado
• Jean-Stéphane Belhomme
• Dejan Stankovic
• Glenn Hodel
• Jose Arias
• Alejandro Achutegui
• Bariş Terzioglu

4 goals

• Orkhan Mammadov
• Nicolae Ignat
• Belchior
• Jérémy Basquaise
• Oleksandr Korniichuk
• Dmytro Voitenko
• Sandro Spaccarotella
• Joscha Metzler
• Christoph Thürk
• Tomáš Huráb
• Francisco Casano
• Kuman

Source: BSWW

Final standings

Rank	Team	Qualification
	Spain	2023 World Beach Games
	Portugal
	Ukraine
4	Switzerland
5	Italy
6	France
7	Germany
8	Turkey
9	Azerbaijan
10	Moldova
11	Czech Republic
12	Norway
13	Sweden

Source: BSWW

Women's tournament

Teams

Seven teams entered the women's event which are as follows,^[2] ordered by their European Ranking in parentheses:^[8]

1.  Spain (1)
2.  England (3)
3.   Switzerland (4)
4.  Ukraine (5)
5.  Czech Republic (6)
6.  Italy (n/a)
7.  Sweden (n/a)

Draw

The draw to split the seven teams into two groups – one of four teams and one of three – took place at 11:00 CEST (UTC+2) on 8 August 2022 at the headquarters of BSWW in Barcelona, Spain alongside the men's draw. Its procedure was as follows:^[2][9]

For the purpose of the draw, the seven teams were split into four pots according to their world ranking – the hosts and highest ranked team were seeded and assigned to the heads of the groups; the next highest ranked teams were then placed in Pot 1, down to the lowest ranked team placed in Pot 3.

One team from Pot 1 and one team from Pot 2 were drawn into the two groups. The sole team in Pot 3 was drawn at random into one of the groups.

The composition of the pots is shown below:

Seeds	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Italy (hosts) (assigned to A1)  Spain (assigned to B1)	England   Switzerland	Ukraine  Czech Republic	Sweden

Group stage

The group stage took place from 31 August – 2 September.

The group winners and runners-up qualify to the 2023 World Beach Games.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ENG	ITA	CZE
1	England	2	2	0	0	0	9	2	+7	6	Semifinals		—	—	5–0
2	Italy (H)	2	1	0	0	1	8	6	+2	3			2–4	—	6–2
3	Czech Republic	2	0	0	0	2	2	11	−9	0	Fifth place match		—	—	—

Source: BSWW
(H) Host

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		UKR	ESP	SWE	SUI
1	Ukraine	3	2	0	0	1	10	8	+2	6[a]	Semifinals		—	—	5–2	—
2	Spain	3	2	0	0	1	13	6	+7	6[a]			1–2	—	—	8–2
3	Sweden	3	1	0	0	2	8	11	−3	3[b]	Fifth place match		—	2–4	—	—
4	Switzerland	3	1	0	0	2	9	15	−6	3[b]			5–3	—	2–4	—

Source: BSWW
Notes:

1. Ukraine and Spain are ranked based on their head-to-head result.
2. Sweden and Switzerland are ranked based on their head-to-head result.

Knockout stage

5th place

	Fifth place match
	3 September; 09:45; Report
	Czech Republic	3
	Sweden	2

1st–4th place

	Semifinals				Final
	3 September; 15:00; Report
	England	3
					4 September; 15:00; Report
	Spain	1
					England	3
	3 September; 16:15; Report
					Ukraine	0
	Ukraine (a.e.t.)	4
	Italy	3
					Third place match
					4 September; 13:30; Report
					Spain	5
					Italy	3

Awards

Winners trophy

2023 World Beach Games – Europe Qualifier Champions
England Second title

Individual awards

Top scorer(s)
Cristina Gonzalez
6 goals
Best player
Molly Clark
Best goalkeeper
Anastasiia Terekh

Source: BSWW

Top goalscorers

Players who scored multiple goals are listed.

There were 86 goals scored in 14 matches, for an average of 6.14 goals per match.

6 goals

• Cristina Gonzalez

5 goals

• Veronica Privitera

4 goals

• Sara Garcia
• Molly Clark
• Maria Vecchione
• Yuliia Dekhtiar
• Sara Tui

3 goals

• Tuva Klar
• Kajsa Sund

2 goals

• Christine Schärer
• Hannah Short
• Wendy Martin
• Gemma Hillier
• Alisha Buckingham
• Anne Meiwald
• Giulia Olivieri
• Roberta Illiano
• Ebba Nilsson
• Anastasiia Klipachenko
• Yuliia Kostiuk
• Myroslava Vypasniak
• Iryna Dubytska
• Andrea Miron
• Adriana Manau

Source: BSWW

Final standings

Rank	Team	Qualification
	England[a]	2023 World Beach Games
	Ukraine
	Spain
4	Italy
5	Czech Republic
6	Sweden
7	Switzerland

Source: BSWW

a. ^ England has no independent National Olympic Committee (NOC) and will instead be represented at the Games as  Great Britain.