The 2001 Beach Soccer World Championships was the seventh 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 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 know ...

). For the first time since its establishment in 1995, the tournament took place outside of the sport's native home of

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 ...

and instead was hosted at the resort of Costa do Sauipe, in the state of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-larges ...

, approximately 70km north of the major city of

Salvador Salvador, meaning " salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...

. It was also the first time that hosts and six-time defending champions

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 ...

did not win the championships, finishing in fourth, as

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 th ...

beat

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 ...

in the final to claim their first title.

Organisation

Having increased the number of participating teams in 1999, these championships continued to consist of twelve nations who were split into four groups of three playing in a round robin format. The top two from each group advanced to the quarter 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 draw for the allocation of the twelve nations into the four groups was conducted on January 14 in

Villa-Lobos State Park Villa-Lobos State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual Villa-Lobos) is a park in São Paulo, Brazil. It is named after composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and is located next to Pinheiros River. It was created in 1989 on a site that was previously used as a rubbis ...

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 GaW ...

. A representative of FIFA, Alfredo Asfura, attended the finals to assess the sport's premier event to understand the suitability of potentially incorporating beach soccer into the FIFA family. His post-competition analysis of the sport was that beach soccer was full of "prosperity" and that the "experience, professionalism and seriousness of the organization f the eventwill be fundamental for FIFA" in deciding where or not to adopt the sport in the future. FIFA ultimately took over as governing body of beach soccer in late 2004.

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

were responsible for broadcasting the games in Brazil, which caused controversy in Portuguese media when the network decided to show the third place play off involving the Brazilian national team but subsequently not show the final.

Teams

Asia, Africa and Oceania were unrepresented. European Zone (6): * * * * * *¹ North American Zone (1): * South American Zone (4): * * * * Hosts: * (South America) Notes: :

1. Teams making their debut

Group stage

''Matches are listed as local time in

, ( BRST / UTC-2)''

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

February 16th was allocated as a rest day.

Quarter finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Daylight saving ended on the morning of the 18th. The time shown is UTC-3.

Final

Winners

Awards

Final standings

References

RSSSF
{{FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

2001 in beach soccer 2001 in Brazilian football

Sport in Bahia