2004 Euro Beach Soccer League

The 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League, was the seventh edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), originally known as the European Pro Beach Soccer League, the premier beach soccer competition contested between European men's national teams, occurring annually since its establishment in 1998. The league was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) between July 2 and September 5, 2004 in ten different nations across Europe.

2004 Euro Beach Soccer League
Tournament details
Dates2 July – 5 September
Teams18 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)10 (in 10 host cities)
Final positions
Champions France (1st title)
Runners-up Portugal
Third place Ukraine
Fourth place Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played77
Goals scored834 (10.83 per match)
Top scorer(s) Madjer
Best player(s) David Cordon
Best goalkeeper Roberto Valeiro
In 2004, BSWW rebranded the competition from the European Pro Beach Soccer League to the Euro Beach Soccer League. With the Pro dropped from the title and European shortened to Euro, this prompted the design of a new logo to reflect the new title. Mastercard became lead sponsors in 2004 and as such their logo was also included in the wider design. This holistic logo was used until its last use in 2006.
Locations of the events of the 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League
Division A events
Division B events
Division A, B & C events
Superfinal

This season, BSWW introduced a third division, Division C, to the EBSL alongside the already existing Divisions A and B. Each team continued, as in the previous seasons, to compete in their respective division, including the newly added Division C nations, to try and earn a place in the season-finale event, the Superfinal, in which the league title was then contested directly.[1]

Spain, who entered as defending champions, had looked odds on favourites to reclaim their title after dominating the top Division but suffered a shock loss to the Division C qualifiers and debutants, Ukraine, in the first round of the Superfinal. This opened the door for France, who had originally narrowly qualified for the season-finale, to ultimately be crowned champions, winning their first and to date only European title.[2]

The league also doubled as the qualification process for the first FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2005. The nations finishing in first, second and third place qualified directly whilst the teams in fourth through seventh place competed in a final play off stage to decide which nation would gain the remaining berth at the World Cup.[3]

Teams

This season 18 nations took part in the Euro Beach Soccer League whom were and were distributed as follows:

Superfinal berths

There were eight berths available in this season's Superfinal, expanded from the six spots in previous seasons. The table summarises in what positions nations needed to finish in their respective divisions in order to qualify to the Superfinal, what round of the Superfinal they would enter finishing in said positions, and the seeding they would receive.

Allocations[1]

  • Division A, consisting of the best teams of the EBSL, was awarded four Superfinal berths
  • Division B, as the middle tier, received three berths
  • The new Division C, in consideration of being the bottom tier of teams, received just one berth.
Seed Position in Division Division Round entered
1WinnerAQuarter-finals
2Runner-up
3Third place
4Fourth place
5WinnerB
6Runner-up
7Third place
8WinnerC

Division A

Division A consisted of six rounds of fixtures known as stages, with one stage hosted in each of the six countries participating as shown. Four teams took part in each, with each team taking part in a total of four of the six stages. In each stage, the teams played each other once. The nation who earned the most points at the end of the stage was crowned stage winners.

At the end of the six stages all results were tallied up in a final league table.

Stage 1

The first stage took place in Marsielle, France. Portugal claimed the stage.

Stage 2

The second stage took place in Scoglitti, Italy. Spain won their first stage of the season.

Stage 3

The third stage took place in Portimão, Portugal. The hosts earned their second stage crown.

Stage 4

The fourth stage took place in Stavanger, Norway. A second stage victory was claimed by Spain.

Stage 5

The penultimate fifth stage took place in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca, Spain. The hosts won their third stage title of the season. The Spanish also earned enough points during this stage to secure first place in the final division standings.

Stage 6

The sixth and final stage was due to be the English stage of Division A, to be held in Brighton (originally to be stage 1 of the division, held at the end of June). However, the sponsors of the English event in previous years, Kronenbourg, and other potential sponsors, were deterred from investing in the event again due to this year's fixtures clashing with Euro 2004, in which it was believed audiences would be far more interested and therefore a risk to invest money into this event. Sky continued to offer TV coverage, but no new sponsor could be found, and so the stage was ultimately cancelled.[5]

BSWW subsequently made an attempt to reorganise the stage as stage 6 in Catanzaro, Italy at the end of August, but this ultimately fell through too.[6]

Final Division A table

The top four Division A teams qualified to the Superfinal. The final positions of the nations occupying first through fourth respectively determined seedings in the quarter-finals. Spain were crowned runaway winners of the division, earning the top seed in the Superfinal. France, finishing in the last qualifying position, claimed the lowest seed on offer in Division A.

Despite the teams playing different numbers of games due to stage 6 being cancelled, this ultimately proved inconsequential to the final league table since, after the completion of stage 5, Norway had no fixtures remaining and it was impossible for England to gain enough points in the final round of matches to move up into a Superfinal qualification spot. Hence the four qualifiers were confirmed at this point. If played, the matches of stage 6 would have been dead rubbers.

Pos Team Pld W W+ L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Spain 1210118244+3832Advance to Superfinal
2 Italy 95134541+417
3 Portugal 94145245+714
4 France 94145349+414
5 Norway 123094866–189
6 England 90092459–350

Division B

Like the top tier, Division B consisted of five rounds of fixtures known as stages, with one stage hosted in each of the five countries participating as shown. Four teams took part in each stage, with each nation participating in four of the five stages overall. In every round of fixtures the teams played each other once. The nation who earned the most points at the end of the stage was crowned stage winners.

At the end of the five stages all results were tallied up in a final league table.

Stage 1

The first stage took place in Istanbul, Turkey. Belgium won the first stage of Division B.

Stage 2

The second stage took place in Linz, Austria. Switzerland won the event.

Stage 3

The third stage took place in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, alongside the running of the Division A and C events. Austria claimed their first stage win.

Stage 4

The fourth and next to last stage took place in Interlaken, Switzerland. The hosts won their second stage crown.

Stage 5

The fifth and final stage took place in Brussels, Belgium. The hosts won the event, their second of the season, and secured the division title after beating Germany on the final day.

Final Division B table

The top three Division B teams qualified to the Superfinal. The final positions of the nations occupying first through third respectively determined seedings in the quarter-finals. The remaining Division B nations exited this season's EBSL.

Belgium were crowned winners. Switzerland and Austria were the other two successful teams, qualifying ahead of Germany by a slim margin.

Pos Team Pld W W+ L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Belgium 128046255+724Advance to Superfinal
2  Switzerland 127056754+1321
3 Austria 126155249+320
4 Germany 126066771–418
5 Turkey 1220104564–196

Division C

Results

The inaugural season of Division C was played as a straight knockout tournament. All teams contesting the division started in the quarter-finals, playing one match per round until the final when the winner was crowned. The losers of the quarter-finals played in consolation matches to determine their final division placements.

^ Slovenia withdrew immediately prior to the start of the event, giving Poland a walkover into the semi-finals, Monaco a bye in the consolation matches with no opponent to face, and meant there was no seventh place play-off.[4]

  5th place match 5th – 8th place play-offs Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final
                                               
      Poland   w/o1   
      Slovenia      
   bye             Poland   2   
    Monaco           Hungary   6   
       Hungary   12    
      Monaco   1   
    Monaco   2         Hungary   2 
    Greece   4          Ukraine   5 
       Netherlands   4      
      Greece   1   
  Greece   7           Netherlands   2 
  7th place       Sweden   2        Ukraine   6      3rd place match
    Sweden          Ukraine   8       Poland   10 
              Sweden   2        Netherlands   6 
        

Final Division C standings

The winner of the division qualified into the Superfinal quarter-finals. The remaining Division C nations exited this season's EBSL.

The Ukraine won the Division C tournament title, comfortably beating Hungary in the final. Since they withdrew, Slovenia did not receive a placing.[7]

Rank Team Qualification
 Ukraine Advance to Superfinal
 Hungary
 Poland
4  Netherlands
5  Greece
6  Monaco
7  Sweden

Superfinal

Qualified teams

This is a summary of the teams who qualified for the Superfinal.

Seed Team Division Round entered
1 SpainAQuarter-finals
2 Italy
3 Portugal
4 France
5 BelgiumB
6  Switzerland
7 Austria
8 UkraineC

Results

This season the Superfinal was played as a straight knockout tournament. All eight teams contesting the title started in the quarter-finals, playing one match per round until the final when the winner of the 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League was crowned. The losers of the quarter-finals played in consolation matches to determine their final league placements.

  5th place match 5th–8th place playoffs Quarterfinals Semifinals Final
                                               
     1   Spain  3  
     8   Ukraine  5  
   1   Spain  9        4   Portugal  7  
   5   Belgium  3        8   Ukraine  4  
   4   Portugal  10
     5   Belgium  7  
   1   Spain  8        4   Portugal  3
   6    Switzerland  4        3   France  6
     3   France  10  
       6    Switzerland  9  
 6    Switzerland  12        3   France  9
  7th place match      7   Austria  5        2   Italy  2     3rd place match
   5   Belgium  9    7   Austria  5    8   Ukraine  5
   7   Austria  3      2   Italy  14      2   Italy  3

Championship match details
Portugal 3–6 France
Madjer  2', 13'
Alan  25'		 Report  1', 33' Sansoni
 4' Cardoso
 11', 23', 31' Samoun

Winners
 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League
Champions 

France
First title

Superfinal final standings

France beat Portugal in the final to win their first Euro Beach Soccer League title.

The success of the three nations finishing in the podium positions meant they earned qualification for the upcoming FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. The teams in fourth through seventh place competed in a final play off stage to decide which nation would gain the remaining berth at the World Cup.

Pos Team Notes Qualification
1 FranceEBSL ChampionsQualified to 2005 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
2 PortugalRunners-up
3 UkraineThird place
4 ItalyAdvanced to World Cup qualification play-off
5 Spain
6  Switzerland
7 Belgium
8 Austria

Sources
  1. "EPBSL Promoters Meeting in Barcelona". beachsoccer.com. 6 November 2003. Archived from the original on 22 December 2003. Retrieved 26 February 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  2. "France Winner of the MasterCard EuroBSLeague Super Final in Monaco..." beachsoccer.com. 5 September 2004. Archived from the original on 6 August 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  3. "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers". fifa.com. 5 April 2005. Archived from the original on 5 April 2005. Retrieved 28 February 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  4. Slovenia were due to play but withdrew just before the start of the Division C event. "Making Beach Soccer History..." beachsoccer.com. 4 August 2004. Archived from the original on 24 October 2004. Retrieved 26 February 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  5. "2004 UK Leg of EPBSL at Brighton Cancelled". beachsoccer-online.com. 9 May 2004. Archived from the original on 19 October 2004. Retrieved 8 April 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  6. "Calendar". beachsoccer.com. 2004. Archived from the original on 6 August 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  7. "RESULTS GROUP C EVENT, MALLORCA". beachsoccer.com. 8 August 2004. Archived from the original on 6 August 2004. Retrieved 26 February 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
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