The AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup is the main championship for

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 ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, contested between the senior men's national teams of

the members The Members are a British punk band that originated in Camberley, Surrey, England. In the UK, they are best known for their single "The Sound of the Suburbs", reaching No. 12 in 1979, and in Australia, "Radio" which reached No. 5 in 1982. Ca ...

of the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly ...

(AFC). It is the sport's version of the better known

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. The winners of the championship are crowned continental champions; the tournament also acts as the qualification route for Asian nations to the upcoming edition of the

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 ...

. Coinciding with the annual staging of the World Cup, the competition took place yearly until 2009; the World Cup then became biennial, and as its supplementary qualification event, the championship followed suit. The championship was established in 2006 after

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

made it a requirement for all confederations to begin holding qualification tournaments to determine the best national team(s) in their region who would proceed to represent their continent in the upcoming World Cup (previously, nations were simply invited to play, without having to earn their place). FIFA currently allocate Asia three berths at the World Cup and hence top three teams qualify to the World Cup finals. Asia's governing body for football, the AFC, organise the championship. However, it was not originally an AFC competition – it was created by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) under the title, ''FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup AFC qualifier''; they organised the first six editions. During this time it also became informally known by the

misnomer A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name ...

, the ''AFC Beach Soccer Championship''. In 2015, the AFC adopted the competition and branded it using its informal title in an official capacity; they jointly organised that year's edition with BSWW. Since 2017, the AFC have been sole organisers.AFC Beach Soccer Championship 2017 Competition Regulations
Asian Football Confederation. 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2020. For 2021, the competition was renamed as the ''AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup'', bringing it in line with the naming of other AFC senior national tournaments.

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

are the most successful nation with three titles and having also qualified for the World Cup on every occasion.

Results

For all tournaments, the top three teams qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (except for 2009 and 2023, when only the top two teams qualified as one of the AFC spots was automatically given to the World Cup hosts, United Arab Emirates).

2021 AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup The 2021 AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup was originally to be the 10th edition (3rd official edition) of the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup (previously the AFC Beach Soccer Championship before rebranding from 2021), the premier beach soccer tournament con ...

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands o ...

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 b ...

Canceled due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Teams to play at World Cup handpicked by the AFC.

Medals (2006-2019)

Teams reaching the top four

Summary (2006-2019)

Points: W = 3 points / WE = 2 points / WP = 1 points / L = 0 points

Awards

Total Awards (2006-2019)

Team of the tournament

Since 2017, the competition's ''Technical Study Group'' have produced a post-tournament report including a dream and reserve "team of the tournament".

Appearances and performance timeline

The following is a performance timeline of the teams who have appeared in the AFC Beach Soccer Championship and how many appearances they each have made. ;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Fourth place *5th–16th – Fifth to sixteenth place *× – Did not enter *•• – Entered but withdrew * – Hosts *Apps – No. of appearances ;Timeline

Performance of qualifiers at the World Cup

The following is a performance timeline of the AFC teams who have appeared in the Beach Soccer World Cup since being sanctioned by FIFA in 2005. ;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Fourth place * – Hosts *QF – Quarter-finals *R1 – Round 1 (group stage) *q – Qualified for upcoming tournament *Total – Total times qualified for World Cup ;Notes

References

External links

*, the-AFC.com {{Asian Championships Asian Football Confederation competitions for national teams FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification Beach soccer competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2006