Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup

Foundation

Brazil, pictured here in 2015, are 3 times champions

Dubai first hosted a beach soccer event in 2000^[10] and since 2006, the city began holding annual events, culminating with the hosting of beach soccer's premier event in 2009, the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.^[11] During 2009, Emirates and FIFA struck an agreement to have the former sponsor and fund football tournaments worldwide. In connection to this deal, Dubai was offered to host an event in either youth football, women's football or beach soccer. DSC decided on beach soccer, following the success and popularity of the World Cup.^[7]

BSWW were also keen on returning beach soccer to Dubai, with Vice-President Joan Cusco claiming Dubai as beach soccer's "second most important city in this sport" save for Rio de Janeiro.^[11] After using the time in 2010 to consider how to take beach soccer forward in the city following the World Cup success, an agreement was made between BSWW and DSC in 2011 to host the new Intercontinental Cup.^[11]

It was desired by BSWW to have the tournament respect the legacy and be a celebration of the 2009 Dubai World Cup.^[12] Therefore it was believed the idea of the competition, featuring the world's very best teams from each continent, modelled notably similarly to association football's secondary international event, the FIFA Confederations Cup,^[4] would be best suited to achieve these goals.^[11] After a successful maiden event in 2011, BSWW and DSC decided to make the tournament an annual occurrence, signing a 5-year contract in 2012.^[13] In 2017, at the end of the 5-year deal, the two parties extended the existing contract to 2020.^[1]

During this time, the championship's reputation has grown quickly because of the high level of elite competition^[14] only comparable to the World Cup and, combined with the yearly presence of the championship, it has become beach soccer's most prestigious annual event (considering the fact that the World Cup is now a biannual event).^[3][15]

Venues

The Walk Festival City International Marine Club Business Bay Kite Beach Locations of the former venues across Dubai

Despite always taking place in Dubai to date, the tournament has been staged in multiple different parts of the city.

• 2011: The Walk, Jumeirah Beach Residence
• 2012: Festival City
• 2013–16: Dubai International Marine Club
• 2017: Business Bay
• 2018: Kite Beach

Format

The Intercontinental Cup is a 5-day event. The eight teams are split into two groups of four. The tournament starts with the group stage, played in a round robin format, taking place during days one through three. The winners and runners-up from each group advanced to the knockout stage, in which the teams then compete in single-elimination matches, beginning with the semi-finals and ending with the final on days four and five respectively. A third-place play-off is also contested by the losing semi-finalists on day five. The third and fourth placed nations from each group play in a series of consolation matches to decide fifth through eighth place however these matches have only occurred since 2013.

Successful teams

#	Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place		Total top 4
1	Russia	3 (2011, 2012, 2015)	2 (2013, 2014)	1 (2016)	1 (2017)		7
2	Brazil	3 (2014, 2016, 2017)	2 (2011, 2012)	–	–		5
3	Iran	1 (2013)	1 (2016)	2 (2015, 2017)	1 (2014)		5
4	Portugal	–	1 (2017)	1 (2014)	–		2
5	Tahiti	–	1 (2015)	–	1 (2016)		2
6	United Arab Emirates	–	–	2 (2012, 2013)	1 (2011)		3
7	Switzerland	–	–	1 (2011)	1 (2013)		2
8	Nigeria	–	–	–	1 (2012)		1
	Egypt	–	–	–	1 (2015)		1

Success by confederation

Overall standings

As of 2017

Pos	Team	App	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Avg. Pts
1	Russia	7	35	22	3	2	8	178	108	+70	74	2.11
2	Brazil	6	30	22	2	1	5	175	89	+86	71	2.37
3	United Arab Emirates	7	35	14	1	1	19	111	140	–29	45	1.29
4	Iran	5	25	12	0	5	8	89	77	+12	41	1.64
5	Portugal	3	15	8	0	1	6	52	51	+1	25	1.67
6	Tahiti	4	16	7	0	0	9	64	75	–11	21	1.31
7	Switzerland	3	13	5	1	1	6	77	66	+11	18	1.38
8	Egypt	3	15	5	1	0	9	61	73	–12	17	1.13
9	Mexico	4	18	4	0	0	14	54	72	–18	12	0.67
10	Nigeria	2	8	3	0	0	5	36	46	–10	9	1.13
11	Morocco	2	10	2	1	0	7	35	44	–9	7	0.7
12	Paraguay	1	5	2	0	0	3	12	15	–3	6	1.2
13	Japan	2	8	2	0	0	6	33	41	–8	6	0.75
14	Poland	1	5	1	0	2	2	17	18	–1	5	1
15	Italy	1	5	1	0	0	4	22	29	–7	3	0.6
16	Oman	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	16	–10	0	0
17	Argentina	1	5	0	0	0	5	14	27	–13	0	0
18	United States	3	13	0	0	0	13	30	79	–49	0	0

Key: Appearances App / Won in Normal Time W = 3 Points / Won in Extra Time W+ = 2 Points / Won in Penalty shoot-out WP = 1 Point / Lost L = 0 Points

Performance timeline & Appearances

Key

Teams \ Years	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Apps
Argentina	×	×	×	×	8th	×	×	×	1
Brazil	2nd	2nd	5th	1st	×	1st	1st		7
Egypt	×	×	×	×	4th	6th	6th		4
Iran	×	×	1st	4th	3rd	2nd	3rd		6
Italy	×	×	6th	×	×	×	×	×	1
Japan	×	7th	×	7th	×	×	×	×	2
Mexico	6th	×	7th	×	7th	×	8th	×	4
Morocco	×	×	8th	5th	×	×	×	×	2
Nigeria	5th	4th	×	×	×	×	×	×	2
Oman	7th	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	1
Paraguay	×	×	×	×	×	×	7th	×	1
Poland	×	×	×	×	×	5th	×	×	1
Portugal	×	×	×	3rd	6th	×	2nd	×	3
Russia	1st	1st	2nd	2nd	1st	3rd	4th		8
Spain	×	×	×	×	×	×	×		1
Switzerland	3rd	5th	4th	×	×	×	×	×	3
Tahiti	8th	6th	×	×	2nd	4th	×		5
United Arab Emirates	4th	3rd	3rd	6th	5th	7th	5th		8
United States	×	8th	×	8th	×	8th	×		4

All-time top goalscorers

As of 2017

The following table shows the all-time top 15 goalscorers.

Rank	Player	Team	Pld	Goals	GPG
1	Dejan Stanković	Switzerland	13	37	2.85
2	Bruno Xavier	Brazil	24	36	1.50
3	Mohammad Ahmadzadeh	Iran	25	28	1.12
4	Dmitry Shishin	Russia	27	27	1.00
5	Alexey Makarov	Russia	30	23	0.77
	Yuri Krasheninnikov	Russia	35		0.66
7	Egor Shaykov	Russia	18	22	1.22
8	Fernando DDI	Brazil	21	20	0.95
9	Naea Bennett	Tahiti	16	19	1.19
10	Anatoly Permitin	Russia	19	17	0.89
11	Rodrigo	Brazil	13	15	1.15
12	Mauricinho	Brazil	14	14	1.00
13	Mohamed Gamal	Egypt	10	13	1.30
	Yegor Yeremeyev	Russia	13		1.00
	Ali Karim	United Arab Emirates	25		0.52