The 2003 Beach Soccer World Championships was the ninth 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 Brazi ...

'', 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 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 organized by Brazilian sports agency Koch Tavares in cooperation with and under the supervision 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 know ...

(BSWW), the sports governing body. For the first time since 2000, the tournament returned to its native venue at

Copacabana Beach Copacabana () is a ''bairro'' (neighbourhood) located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is most prominently known for its 4 km (2.5 miles) balneario beach, which is one of the most famous in the wor ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

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 ...

. The main sponsor was

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

. The tournament saw

win their eighth title by beating first time finalists

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

Organisation

As like in the previous year, a record low of eight nations competed in two groups of four teams in a round robin format. The top two teams in each group after all the matches of the group stage had been played progressed into the semi-finals, in which the championship proceeded 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 ...

therein until a winner was crowned, with an additional match to decide third place.

Teams

Qualification

European teams gained qualification by finishing in the top three spots of the 2002

Euro Beach Soccer League The Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) is the premier competition in beach soccer contested between European men's national teams. The competition has been held annually since its establishment in 1998, making it the oldest beach soccer tournament in ...

. North and South American qualification was based on performances over recent times in a series of events involving teams from the Americas. The other entries received wild-card invites. Africa and Oceania were unrepresented.

Entrants

This remains the only year in all nineteen editions when no new nations made their debut at a world cup. Asian Zone (1): *^WC European Zone (4): * * * *^WC North American Zone (1): * South American Zone (1): * Hosts: * (South America)

Group stage

''Matches are listed as local time in

, ( UTC-3)''

Group A

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

Group B

---- ----

Knockout stage

February 21 was allocated as a rest day.

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Final

Winners

Awards

Top goalscorers

;15 goals * Neném ;10 goals * Amarelle * Madjer ;9 goals * Júnior Negão ;8 goals * Sciortino * Benjamin ;6 goals * Nico ;5 goals * Bonora * Alan ;4 goals * Jorginho * Fruzzetti * Eloy ;3 goals * Q. Setién * Francis * Beto * Samoun * Jairzinho * Marquet * Cantona * Hernani * Nico ;2 goals * Buru * Juninho * D’Amico * Ferrigno * Garlini * Fabian * German * Mochizuki * Ottavy * Belchior ;15 others scored 1 goal each

Final standings

References

Sources

RSSSFBSWWBig SoccerAwardsScorers
(incomplete) {{FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

2003 in beach soccer 2003 in Brazilian football