BSWW World Ranking

Top 25 Rankings – December 2023 [1]
Rank	Change	Team	Points	Confederation
1		Brazil	2549	CONMEBOL (1)
2	1	Spain	2307	UEFA (1)
3	1	Portugal	2209	UEFA (2)
×	×	Russia [lower-alpha 1]	×	×
4		Paraguay	1825	CONMEBOL (2)
5	2	Switzerland	1762	UEFA (3)
6	1	Japan	1709	AFC (1)
7	1	Italy	1500	UEFA (4)
8		United Arab Emirates	1458	AFC (2)
9	1	Senegal	1420	CAF (1)
10	1	Iran	1308	AFC (3)
11		Colombia	1283	CONMEBOL (3)
12		El Salvador	1257	CONCACAF (1)
13		United States	1254	CONCACAF (2)
14		Argentina	1187	CONMEBOL (4)
15	1	Morocco	1017	CAF (2)
16	1	Uruguay	1003	CONMEBOL (5)
17	1	Ukraine	960	UEFA (5)
18	1	Oman	942	AFC (4)
19		Belarus	883	UEFA (6)
20		Tahiti	850	OFC (1)
21		Mexico	828	CONCACAF (3)
22		Venezuela	797	CONMEBOL (6)
23		Saudi Arabia	729	AFC (5)
24		Egypt	709	CAF (3)
25	1	Costa Rica	654	CONCACAF (4)
Complete rankings (of 90 teams) at beachsoccer.com
*Change since October 2023; Parentheses show the team's confederation rank.

The BSWW World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in beach soccer, calculated by the sport's developmental body, Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). ^[2] The rankings are currently led by Brazil ^[1] who have held the number one spot since March 2023. ^[3]

The teams (both member nations of FIFA – the sport's governing body – and non-members) are ranked using a "points-per-event system", whereby the ranking of the team in the final standings of each event they participate in awards that team a certain number of points; the teams that accumulate the most points are ranked highest. ^[2]

The rankings were introduced in February 2014 and were originally updated monthly; ^[4] since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, new issues have been released at irregular intervals. To date, only three teams (Russia, Portugal and Brazil) have held the top position, of which Brazil have spent the longest ranked first.

The ranking system is based upon that which is used to produce the FIFA World Rankings ^[2] in its parent sport, association football, and since its establishment has been used for such purposes as seeding teams at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. ^[5]

Background

Since the 2000s, BSWW had been producing a European ranking; it was used to seed the teams in regional events. At each competition the teams played in, they earned points depending on their final position (an approach also adapted for use in the world ranking). ^[6]

BSWW believed creating a world ranking would help teams, national associations and fans in understanding the "reality of beach soccer". ^[4]

The ranking was first presented at the 2nd FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop in Dubai from 22 to 23 November 2013 to representatives of over 100 national associations who debated the composition of its materialisation. ^{[4] [7]}

In building the initial version of the ranking, BSWW took into account "many aspects and factors" used to create the FIFA World Rankings. ^[8] Points earned from events over the previous five years (2009–13) were observed to include the outcomes of the three previous World Cups, therefore providing "an extensive results record and a solid criteria" for its basis; the results of over 1400 matches from ~100 events were integrated into the ranking. The weight of a team's points was reduced by 20% going back year on year. ^[8]

The finalised version was subsequently released on 6 February 2014; ^[4] for succeeding updates, the current calculation method immediately superseded the method use to create the initial ranking. ^{[lower-alpha 2] [8]}

Current calculation method

Correct as of November 2022 ^{[lower-alpha 2] [2]}

Points distribution

The teams are ranked using a "points-per-event system"; in each event they participate, the teams will earn ranking points (providing the event is sanctioned by BSWW and/or FIFA) – the number of points they earn is determined by their placement in the final standings of that event. The higher in the standings the team finishes, the more points they will earn. Runners-up receive 25% less points than the champions; for most subsequent places, they receive 20% less points than the position above.

BSWW have divided the different types of competitions on the calendar into eight tiers of prestige for the purposes of the world ranking. Higher tier events that are deemed to be the most prestigious reward teams with more points than lower tier events.

The following table shows exactly how many points a team will earn per their final position at each type of event:

Key:

Symbol	Description
†	a) The points on offer vary for each continent due to the perceived strength of the different confederations. Strength is calculated by considering interconfederation matches at the last three FIFA Beach Soccer World Cups. The confederations that win the most points on average from these matches are considered strongest and therefore receive more points in tier 3 tournaments than the weaker ones. b) Continental championships also act as qualification tournaments to the World Cup (WC). Since the WC hosts qualify automatically, sometimes they do not compete in their respective continental championship. To compensate for their induced absence, the team is automatically awarded with a set of points – the average they have earned from their last three appearances in the championship.
∇	Applies to Europe only – note that unlike any other competitions, points earned from regular season events expire from a team's ranking points total immediately after the end of the league season, not after the usual four year limit.
‡	Premium and Category 1 events are organised by BSWW; they involve a larger number of FIFA referees, more BSWW delegates, higher stadium standards and more TV coverage than Category 2 events.
∆	In the event a friendly ends in a tie, both teams receive 5 points.
—	This position is never applicable to this competition.
...	Continued from previous (when/if applicable).

Tier	Event			Points per position in final standings of event
				C	RU	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	...
1	FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup			1750	1315	1050	840	670	540	430	345	275	220	175	140	115	115	115	115	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	World Beach Games			600	450	360	290	230	185	150	120	95	75	60	50	40	40	40	40	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3	Continental championships †	OFC; UEFA		550	415	330	265	210	170	135	110	85	70	70	70	70	70	70	70	55	55	...	...	...	...	...
		CONMEBOL		544	411	327	262	208	168	134	109	84	69	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
		AFC		528	398	316	254	201	163	130	105	81	67	67	67	67	67	67	67	53	53	...	...	...	...	...
		CAF		484	365	290	233	185	149	119	97	75	61	61	61	61	61	61	61	48	48	...	...	...	...	...
CONCACAF		470	350	280	225	180	145	115	90	75	60	60	60	60	60	60	60	45	45	...	...	...	...	...
4	Intercontinental Cup			450	340	270	215	175	140	110	90	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5	Continental leagues	Finals		400	300	240	190	155	125	100	90	85	80	75	75	70	70	70	70	60	60	60	60	55	55	...
		Regular season∇	Division A	45	35	25	20	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
			Division B	25	18	13	10	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6	Continental cups & games			300	225	180	145	115	90	75	60	50	50	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
7	BSWW Tour ‡	Premium		200	160	120	80	60	50	40	30	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
		Category 1		100	80	60	40	30	25	20	20	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
		Category 2		40	30	20	10	5	5	5	5	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
8	Friendly matches ∆			10	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Points weighting & assessment periods

Only the total points earned from the above events over the last four years (counting back from the current month) go towards the team's ranking; points older than four years expire and do not count.

The four years in question are assessed as individual twelve month periods; the total points earned during each period are weighted differently to put an emphasis on the value of points earned more recently. 100% of a team's total points gained during the last twelve months count towards their ranking. However, from the three preceding twelve month periods, only a portion of their points earned during each count towards their ranking; the portion that counts gets smaller the further back in time the period in question is which are 75%, 50% and 25% of their original points totals respectively.

This is illustrated/summarised in the table below:

For the current ranking month: February 2024				Example calculation
Time when points were earned	Period assessed in current ranking	% of points total counted		Points earned during period	Points counted towards ranking
Up to 1 year ago	March2023 – February 2024	100%		500	x1.00 = 500
1 to 2 years ago	March2022 – February 2023	75%		500	x0.75 = 375
2 to 3 years ago	March2021 – February 2022	50%		500	x0.50 = 250
3 to 4 years ago	March2020 – February 2021	25%		500	x0.25 = 125
				2000	1250

World number 1 teams

Ranking leaders

Timeline of
BSWW World Ranking leaders

Three teams have been ranked world number 1, namely Russia, Portugal and Brazil. The rank leaders have roughly coincided with the team that is reigning World Cup champions during that time.

When the rankings debuted in February 2014, Russia were the inaugural leaders, having amassing over 5000 points ^[4] thanks to winning the 2011 and 2013 World Cup and Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) titles. Portugal won the next World Cup in July 2015 and the EBSL in the August; Russia finished third in both. Despite Portugal's successes, they were not enough to knock Russia off the top spot until June 2016. ^[9] Portugal relinquished their world crown to Brazil in May 2017 who immediately took the number 1 ranking ^[10] and subsequently overtook Russia as the team longest ranked the world's best in October 2019. Portugal regained the World Cup title in December 2019, cutting Brazil's lead to a mere 240 points, but nevertheless the South American's clung on to the number 1 spot in the immediate aftermath of the tournament. ^[11] Their near three-year stay at the top of the ranking finally ended with the release of the March 2020 listings, with world champions Portugal replacing them at the peak by a slender 21 points, ^[12] becoming the first team to spend a second spell as number 1. ^[13] Russia then began their second spell as ranking leaders after a five year gap, in August 2021, immediately after claiming the 2021 World Cup. ^[14] By January 2022, they had spent enough time at the summit during this spell to regain the record of team longest ranked the world's best cumulatively. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine then occurred in February; as a result, Russia were suspended from participating in BSWW competitions in accordance with sanctions imposed by FIFA and UEFA in response to the conflict. ^{[15] [16]} Subsequently, they were powerless in surrendering the top spot back to Portugal by November. ^[17] However, Portugal's third spell as world number 1 would ultimately by the shortest of any incumbent to date, as within just a few months, a series of titles, primarily the 2023 Copa América, saw Brazil earn enough points to return to the pinnacle after three years, ^[3] later leapfrogging Russia to have amassed the most time at number 1 once again by January 2024.

Two teams have peaked at number 2 without yet going on to reach the top spot which are Iran and Spain. Both Switzerland and Paraguay have peaked at number 3, the highest of any landlocked countries.^{[ citation needed ]}

Summary of world number 1 teams

Nº	Team	Start date	End date	Months	Total
1	Russia	January 2014	May 2016	29	29
2	Portugal	June 2016	April 2017	11	11
3	Brazil	May 2017	February 2020	34	34
	Portugal (2)	March 2020	July 2021	17	28
	Russia (2)	August 2021	October 2022	15	44
	Portugal (3)	November 2022	February 2023	4	32
	Brazil (2)	March 2023	present	12	46

Season-end number 1

The season-end number 1 is the team which garnered the most points during the calendar year in question.

Season	Team	Ref.
2013	Russia
2014	Portugal
2015	Portugal
2016	Portugal
2017	Brazil
2018	Spain
2019	Portugal
2020	n/a

Movers of the Month

Movers of the Month was (2015–2021) a commendation bestowed by BSWW with the release of each new update to the rankings to give recognition to the team that during that month (providing that they had played) had moved up the rankings the most or the team which had gained the most points. It began with the September 2015 update when Power Horse  [ de ] became official sponsors of the rankings, ^[18] started to be awarded infrequently and at irregular intervals following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has stopped being awarded entirely since the end of 2021.

Towards the tail end of its existence, in 2020, BSWW began awarding the commendation to teams part of the club rankings and women's national teams as well; the following tables list the men's national teams winners of Movers of the Month:

Year Month Movers of the Month Change Ref. 2015 September   Egypt 11 October   Trinidad and Tobago 2 November   Egypt 11 December   Ivory Coast 3 2016 January   Brazil 0 February   Japan 2 March   Portugal 0 April   United Arab Emirates 2 May   England 6 June   Portugal 1 July   Brazil 1 August   Ukraine 4 September   Poland 22 October   Japan 3 November   Iran 1 December   Senegal 8 2017 January    Switzerland 1 February   Panama 38 March   United Arab Emirates 9 April   Tahiti 1 May   Brazil 2 June   France 1 July   Belarus 1 August   Iran 1 September   Russia 1 October   Mexico 0

Year Month Movers of the Month Change Ref. 2017 November   Brazil 0 December   Spain 3 2018 January   Iran 0 February   Senegal 1 March   Brazil 0 April   Mexico 2 May   France 3 June   Portugal 0 July   Morocco 5 August   United States 8 September   Italy 1 October   Brazil 0 November   Iran 1 December   Senegal 4 2019 January   Spain 0 February   Iraq 11 March   Japan 2 April   Portugal 0 May   Mexico 8 June   Tahiti 3 July   Russia 1 August   Portugal 1 September   Ukraine 3 October   Brazil 0 November   Japan 3 December   Portugal 2

Year Month Movers of the Month Change Ref. 2020 January Not awarded to men's national teams February March   Portugal 1 April → Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 → July August   Russia 3 September   Portugal 0 October Not awarded to men's national teams November   Senegal 3

Other rankings

BSWW formally published a series of new rankings to accompany the primary men's national team world rankings in December 2018, all of which were concerned purely with European sides. ^[19] In November 2019, these rankings were upgraded from being only European based, to fully global rankings (save for the association ranking). ^[20] Unlike the men's world ranking, they are not updated monthly. ^[19]

Each ranking category, and the basis of each (at the release of the current issue), is listed below.

• Women's national teams: Ranked based on recent performances in the Women's Euro Beach Soccer Cup, World Beach Games and qualifiers.
• Men's clubs: Ranked based on recent performances in the Euro Winners Cup, Copa Libertadores, Mundialito de Clubes and World Winners Cup.
• Women's clubs: Ranked based on recent performances in the Women's Euro Winners Cup and World Winners Cup.
• Men's national associations (Europe only): Ranked based on recent performances of the clubs representing them in the Euro Winners Cup, therefore determining which European leagues have the best quality of clubs (inspired by the UEFA country coefficient ranking). ^[21]

The club rankings are used to seed teams in European competitions. Similar to the UEFA coefficient's relationship with the UEFA Champions League, the association ranking is used to determine the number of clubs that qualify from each country's domestic league to the next edition of the Euro Winners Cup; better quality associations receive more berths. ^[21]

The following tables show the top ten in each ranking's current issue:

Key: Confederation –

AFC /

CAF /

CONCACAF /

CONMEBOL /

OFC /

UEFA

Women's national teams August 2023 issue Rank Chg Team Points 1   Spain 1531 2   England 1081 3 2   Ukraine 874 × ×   Russia [lower-alpha 1] × 4 1   United States 703 5 1   Brazil 684 6   Italy 560 7 2   Portugal 536 8 1   Czech Republic 431 9 1   El Salvador 345 10 2   Trinidad 280 Full rankings (23 teams) *change since May 2023

Men's clubs August 2023 issue Rank Chg Club Points 1 Braga 2311 2 Real Münster 2281 3 10 Kfar Qassem 1630 4 1 La Pirraya 1550 5 1 Rostocker Robben 1206 6 2 Levante 1136 7 11 Vasco da Gama 1124 8 4 Kristall 1106 9 2 Napoli Patron 1104 10 14 O Sótão 1085 Full rankings (215 clubs) *change since February 2023

Women's clubs August 2023 issue Rank Chg Club Points 1 1 Terrassa 1840 2 9 Higicontrol Melilla 1692 3 4 FC10 Ladies 1672 4 3 Barra de Santiago 1550 5 2 Grembach Łódź 1437 6 2 San Javier 1321 7 2 Marseille BT 1240 8 4 Cáceres 1130 9 1 São Pedro 1000 10 4 Zvezda 987 Full rankings (67 clubs) *change since February 2023

Men's national associations 2022 issue Rank Chg Association Points 1 Portugal 6902 × × Russia × 2 Spain 2719 3 Ukraine 1857 4 4 Germany 1835 5 Poland 1145 6 1 Turkey 804 7 1 Italy 762 8 2 Belgium 677 9 3 France 657 10 1 Greece 547 Full rankings (28 associations) *change since 2020

References

Notes

1. Russia are currently suspended from the rankings. However, their name still appears on the official ranking list, in the place of their last position before suspension. But furthermore, they are listed without a ranking or points attached. ^[1]
2. As of the current calculation method date stated, the ranking system has remained largely the same throughout its existence, with the exception of some minor alterations that have been introduced gradually over time, most notably the addition of new competition tiers (for example, the World Beach Games have only existed since 2019). Temporary changes to the points distribution of some events were also made in consideration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[2]

Citations

1. "Ranking - Men's National Teams". Beach Soccer Worldwide. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
2. "Men's National Team Beach Soccer World Ranking" (PDF). Beach Soccer Worldwide. November 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
3. "Brasil retoma liderança do ranking mundial de beach soccer depois de três anos". O Globo (in Portuguese). 31 March 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
4. "Beach Soccer World Ranking, presented!". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
5. "Draw Procedures FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017" (PDF). FIFA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
6. "BSWW - aktuální žebříček evropských zemí 2010" (in Czech). plazovakopana.cz. 2010. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
7. "II FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop in Dubai". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
8. "BEACH SOCCER WORLD RANKING POINTS DISTRIBUTION 2014" (PDF). Beach Soccer Worldwide. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
9. "Portugal reel in Russia to top rankings". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 4 July 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
10. "Movers of the Month: Brazil". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
11. "Portugal: The decade's final Movers of the Month!". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 29 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
12. "Portugal é o melhor do mundo em futebol de praia". Maisfutebol (in Portuguese). 1 April 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
13. "Portugal atop of the World ranking once more!". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
14. "Swiss trio are Russia 2021's golden boys". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 29 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
15. "Decision of the UEFA Executive Committee related to Russia" (PDF). UEFA.com (Press release). Union of European Football Associations. 28 February 2022. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
16. "Measures taken by BSWW after the attacks on Ukraine". Beach Soccer Worldwide . 28 February 2022. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
17. "Portugal subiu ao topo do ranking mundial". Record (in Portuguese). 3 December 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
18. "Overall World Ranking show many changes". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 2 October 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
19. "Three new beach soccer rankings released!". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
20. "New beach soccer rankings released". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
21. "Новый год начался в ноябре. Что известно о календаре сезона-2019". Beach Soccer Russia. 14 November 2018. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.

External links

• Overall World Ranking, at Beach Soccer Worldwide
• World Ranking, at Beach Soccer Russia (in Russian)