The 2008 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the fourth 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 Championshi ...

, governed by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

. Overall, this was the 14th edition of a world cup in beach soccer since the establishment of the '' Beach Soccer World Championships'' which ran from 1995–2004 but was not governed by FIFA. It took place in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, France, in the Plages du Prado from 17 to 27 July 2008. It was the first tournament to take place outside Brazil. The winners of the tournament were

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, who won their third consecutive FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup title and their twelfth title overall.

Qualifying rounds

Africa

The qualifiers to determine the two African nations who would play in the World Cup took place in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

for the third year running between March 25 and March 30. Eight nations took part in the competition, all of whom participated in the 2007 Championship, which eventually saw

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

claim their first title, qualifying for the second successive World Cup and which saw

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

finish in second place, also qualifying for the second time.

Asia

The Asian qualifiers took place in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, for the third time, between May 6 and May 10. The hosts, the

qualified for the second time after beating

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in the final of the championship, 4-3, for the second consecutive year.

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

beat

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in the third place play off to claim the third berth at the World Cup for the third year in a row.

Europe

For the first time since the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers began in 2006, due to the large interest of European nations in beach soccer, UEFA held a tournament dedicated to World Cup qualification in

Benidorm Benidorm ( , , ) is a municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Known as the “New York City, New York of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean”, Benidorm has been a tourist destinatio ...

, Spain, between, May 11 and May 18, instead of allowing European nations to qualify to the World Cup through the Euro Beach Soccer League. Hosts

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

won the championship, with neighbours

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

finishing second.

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

beat

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in the third place play off, but regardless of the result, both teams qualified to the World Cup, along with the finalists.

North, Central American and Caribbean Zone

The North, Central America and the Caribbean Zone qualifiers took place between April 17 and April 19 in

Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta ( or simply Vallarta) is a Mexican resort city near the Bahía de Banderas on the Pacific coast of the Mexico, Mexican state of Jalisco. Puerto Vallarta is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadalajara ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

were the two finalists, meaning they both qualified for the World Cup; Mexico for the second time and El Salvador for the first. Mexico defeated El Salvador in the final to win their first title.

South America

The South American qualifiers took place between April 23 and April 27, in the

Argentinean Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

capital,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and hosts

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

were the two finalists, meaning they both qualified for the World Cup. Brazil defeated Argentina in the final to win the title.

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

were knocked out in the semi-finals and played each other in the third place play off. Uruguay beat Venezuela to claim the third berth at the World Cup.

Oceania

For the first and to date only time, no Oceanian qualifiers were held. The

Oceania Football Confederation The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It ...

nominated the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

as their representative in the World Cup, based on their results over the past two years, which showed that they were by far the strongest team in the confederation.

Hosts

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

qualified automatically as the hosts.

Teams

These are the teams that qualified to the World Cup: Asian zone: * * * African zone: * * European zone: * (hosts) * * * * North, Central American and Caribbean zone: * (First Appearance) * Oceanian zone: * South American zone: * * *

Players

Venue

A stadium on the Plage du Prado in southern

was used known as the '' Stade du Prado'' or the ''Stadium of the Beach'' in English. The stadium hosted all 32 matches.

Group stage

The 16 teams present at the finals in France were split into 4 groups of 4 teams. Each team played the other 3 teams in its group in a round-robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the quarter finals. The quarter finals, semi finals and the final itself was played in the form of a

knockout tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

. All matches are listed as local time (

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

)

Group A

* Note: France, Uruguay and Senegal were involved in a tie-break situation and therefore their matches against Iran were ignored and the nations were ranked by their goal difference in the matches against each other. Despite France having the worst overall goal difference, they had the best goal difference between the three teams involved in the tie-break and therefore finished in first place. Uruguay, with an equal number of goals scored and conceded, against France and Senegal finished second, and Senegal with a negative goal difference of -1, finished third. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

Quarter finals

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Semi finals

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Third place play off

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Final

Winners

Awards

Top scorers

;13 goals *

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

;11 goals * Amarelle ;10 goals * Belchior ;8 goals *

James Naka James Naka (born 9 October 1984 in Honiara) is a Solomon Islands footballer currently playing for Nalkutan F.C., Nalkutan. He plays as a midfielder or forward (association football), forward. He has played in 10 editions of the FIFA Beach Soccer ...

* Pape Koukpaki ;7 goals * Alan * Jeremy Basquaise ;6 goals *

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

* Bruno * Ricar ;5 goals *

Buru Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon Island, Ambon and Seram Island, Seram island ...

* Paolo Palmacci * Didier Samoun * Egor Shaykov * Simone Feudi * Roberto Pasquali * Federico Hilaire * Andre ;4 goals * Martin * Daniel * Facundo Minici * Nico ;3 goals * Gomis Mbengue * Dmitry Shishin * Fabian * Torres * Massimiliano Esposito * Ali Naderi * Bakhit Alabadla * Rami Al Mesaabi * Parrillo ;2 goals * Ilya Leonov * Betinho * Júnior Negrão * Agustin Ruiz * Christopher Flores * Javi Alvarez * Gibson Hosea * Joan Etame * Mehdi Davoudi ;2 goals (cont.) * Moslem Mesigar * Omo * Ricardo Villalobos * Tomoya Uehara * Victor Diagne * Ibrahim Albalooshi * Tomas Hernandez * Alexey Makarov * Cesar Leguizamon * Stéphane François * Beirao Sousa * Bilro * Diego Maradona Jr * Francesco Corosiniti * Giuseppe Condorelli * Sidney * Giuseppe Soria ;Own goals * Alireza Rahimi (for France ) * Gideon Omokirio (for Portugal ) * Ekwalla Eyoum (for the United Arab Emirates ) * Aime Yombi (for Russia ) * Katsuhiro Yoshii (for Brazil ) * Coco (for Portugal ) ;35 others scored 1 goal each

Final standings

References

External links

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Marseilles 2008
, FIFA.com
FIFA Technical Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Beach Soccer World Cup International association football competitions hosted by France

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...