The Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations (BSAFCON) 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 ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, contested between senior men's national teams who are members of the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

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

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

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 African 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 Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...

, and as its supplementary qualification event, the championship followed suit. The championship was established in 2006 when

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 and hence those 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 Africa two berths at the World Cup and hence the top two teams (the winners and the runners-up) qualify to the World Cup finals.

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) originally organised the competition under the title ''FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup CAF qualifier'' (also known informally as the ''CAF Beach Soccer Championship''). Despite historically having minimal input (often only sending delegates), CAF became lead organisers in 2015, establishing a qualification phase to determine the elite eight nations to compete in the tournament finals. CAF also began using the BSAFCON title to which the competition was officially renamed for the next edition, scheduled for 2017. However, CAF later announced that since three of its competitions were already held in odd-numbered years, the tournament would now be held in even-numbered years henceforth to desaturate the calendar, starting with 2016.

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

are the most successful nation having won the event seven times and are also the current champions. In terms of success in qualifying to the World Cup, again Senegal are the most outstanding nation, having qualified in nine out of eleven attempts;

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

follow close behind, with six qualifications.

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

had its debut in

2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Overall, this was the 21st edition of a world cup in beach soccer since the establishment of the ''Beach Soccer World Championships'' which ran from 1995 ...

Results

For all tournaments, the top two teams qualified for the

Performance

Successful nations

Awards

All-time table

''As of 2021'' Key: Appearances App / Won in normal time W = 3 points / Won in extra-time W+ = 2 points / Won on penalty shoot-out WP = 1 point / Lost L = 0 points /

Points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

PPG

Appearances & performance timeline

The following is a performance timeline of the teams who have appeared in the Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations and how many appearances they each have made. Additionally, eight teams have entered the qualification round at least once since its introduction in 2015 without having yet qualified for the finals, nor having participated in the tournament before 2015 when entry was automatic which are:

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast� ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. A further team,

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, qualified for the 2021 tournament but withdrew before the finals began. ;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Fourth place *5th–9th – Fifth to ninth place *R1 – Round 1 (group stage) *× – Did not enter *×× – Entered qualifying but withdrew *• – Did not qualify *•• – Qualified but withdrew *q – Qualified for upcoming tournament * – Hosts (qualify automatically) *Apps – No. of appearances ;Timeline Entry requirements: *2006–2013: Automatic entry for all teams. *Since 2015: Eight teams qualify through the qualification round.

Performance of qualifiers at the World Cup

The following is a performance timeline of the CAF teams who 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

Confederation of African Football
official website.
Beach Soccer Worldwide
official website. {{African Championships Confederation of African Football competitions for national teams

Beach soccer competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2006