Sport – beachsoccer india football barefoot beach sand transstadia

While association football has been played informally on the beach for many years; the introduction of beach soccer was an attempt to codify the rules of the game. This was done in 1992 by the founders of Beach Soccer World Wide (BSWW), to develop the sport and responsible for majority of its tournaments to this day.

Beach Soccer was started in Brazil at Leme Beach in Rio de Janerio. After BSWW was founded in 1992, presence of international stars such as Frenchman Eric Cantona, Spanish strikers Micheal and Julio Salinas, Brazilian stars Romario, Junior and Zico generated a lot of media interest has helped to expand television coverage to large audiences in over 170 countries worldwide, making Beach Soccer one of the fastest growing professional sports in the world and converting it into a major showcase for international commercial opportunity.

In April 1994 the first event to be covered by network television transmissions was held on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro and the city hosted the first Beach Soccer World Championship in 1995. The competition was won by the host nation, making Brazil the first ever World Champions of Beach Soccer. The success of the tournament saw commercial interest begin to match developments on the pitch and growing demand for the sport around the world gave rise to the Pro Beach Soccer Tour in 1996. The first Pro Beach Soccer Tour included a total of 60 games in two years across South America, Europe, Asia and the United States, attracting major names both on and off the pitch. Interest generated by the tour in Europe led to the creation of the European Pro Beach Soccer League in 1998, providing a solid infrastructure that would increase the professionalism of the spectacle on all levels. The EPBSL, now known as the Euro BS League, brought promoters together from across the continent and satisfied the demands of the media, sponsors and fans. Only four years on from its creation, the successful first step in the building of a legitimate Worldwide Competition Structure for the sport of Pro Beach Soccer had been taken.

In 2001, Beach Soccer World Wide (BSWW) was formed with the aim of unifying all major Pro Beach Soccer tournaments in the world under the same structure and providing representation of the sport to major sponsors, the media and FIFA.

By 2004, 17 nations had entered teams, with this number expected to rise to over twenty for the Euro BS League in 2005, contributing to vastly expanded television coverage of the series and unprecedented demand from promoters in more than 70 countries looking to stage events.

FIFA recognized BSWW in 2005 as the major entity behind the creation and growth of Beach Soccer and formed a partnership to organize Beach Soccer World Cups which is now held once every 2 years.