The 2002 Beach Soccer World Championships was the eighth edition of the ''

Beach Soccer World Championships The Beach Soccer World Championships was the premier international beach soccer competition contested by men's national teams between 1995 and 2004. It was replaced by the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. The tournament took place annually in Braz ...

'', the most prestigious competition in international

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. Whilst football has been played informally on beaches, the introduction of ''beach soccer'' was an a ...

contested by men's national teams until 2005, when the competition was then replaced by the second iteration of a world cup in beach soccer, the better known ''

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament was preceded by the ''Beach Soccer World Champions ...

''. It was organised by Brazilian sports agency Koch Tavares (one of the founding partners of

Beach Soccer Worldwide Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) is the organisation responsible for the founding and growth of association football's derivative sport of beach soccer. The founding partners of BSWW codified the rules of beach soccer in 1992, with BSWW as it is kno ...

). The tournament continued to change its location, this time being staged for the first time at two venues, in Vitória, (

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

) and primarily

Guarujá Guarujá (; ) is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. The population is 322,750 (2020 est.) in an area of . This place name comes from the Tupi language, and means "narrow pat ...

, (

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In addition, the number of participating teams was reduced back to eight, as it was during the first three editions.

narrowly beat defending champions

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

6–5 in the final to reclaim the title, winning their seventh crown in eight attempts.

Organisation

The format reverted to how the competition was organised during its founding years of 1995 to 1997. After three years as a twelve team tournament, the number of participants was reduced back to eight as it were originally, competing in two groups of four teams in a

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

format. The top two teams progressed straight to the semi-finals from which point on the championship was played as a

knock-out tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

until a winner was crowned with an additional match to determine third place. The schedule was announced in December 2001. Despite the tournament being held in two locations, in reality only one match, the opening fixture between Brazil and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, was staged in Vitória whilst the other fifteen were held in Guarujá.

Rede Globo TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air Television broadcasting, television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Gr ...

broadcast the games on television in Brazil.

Teams

Qualification

European teams gained qualification by finishing in the top three spots of the 2001 Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL). The winners, runners up and third placed nations in the previous World Championships also gained automatic qualification for their performances a year earlier; reigning champions

had already gained their spot through being runners-up in the EBSL, however runners-up of last years World Cup

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, who did not finish in the top three of the ESBL, and third placed

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, gained their spots this way. The other entries received invites.

Entrants

Africa, North America and Oceania were unrepresented. Asian Zone (1): *^{1, Inv.} European Zone (4): * * * * South American Zone (2): * *^Inv. Hosts: * (South America) =

Group stage

''Matches are listed as local time in Vitória and

, ( BRST / UTC-2)''

Group A

---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Knockout stage

January 18 was allocated as a rest day.

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Final

Winners

Awards

Top goalscorers

;9 goals * Neném *

Madjer João Victor Saraiva (born 22 January 1977), better known as Madjer, is a Portuguese retired beach soccer player. He played in the forward position, and has won numerous awards at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups for his goalscoring abilities ...

* Nico ;8 goals *

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

;7 goals * Borghi ;5 goals * Junior Negão * Benjamin * Amarelle * Juninho * Miguel ;4 goals * Lungkaew * Jorginho * Albore * Gentile ;3 goals * David * Polsak * Aquilante * Hilaire * Topo * Hernâni * Barraca * Pico * Khongkeaw ;2 goals * Nico * Bonora *

Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

* Samoun * Godoy * Zé Miguel * Gato * German ;19 others scored 1 goal each

Final standings

References

Sources

RSSSF
{{FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2002 in beach soccer 2002 in Brazilian football Sport in Espírito Santo Sport in São Paulo (state)