AFC Beach Soccer Championship

AFC Beach Soccer Championship

Founded	2006
Region	Asia (AFC)
Number of teams	15 (2015)
Current champions	Oman (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Japan  United Arab Emirates (2 titles)

The AFC Beach Soccer Championship is the main international championship for beach soccer in Asia, mirroring that of the AFC Asian Cup in association football. Also known as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers for AFC, the championship was established in 2006 after FIFA made requirements for all confederations to begin holding a qualification tournament to determine the best national team(s) in the region and hence those who would proceed to represent their continent in the World Cup.

Asia was awarded three spots at the finals under FIFA's new changes to the organisation of the World Cup and hence the winners, runners-up and winner of the third place play-off qualify to the succeeding World Cup finals. Before 2006, there was no consistent method of qualification or number of spots at the World Cup for Asian nations, with countries often simply being invited to play in the finals, without competing for a regional crown beforehand.

The most successful nations are the United Arab Emirates and Japan, who have both won two of the seven tournaments. However Japan may be considered as the most successful of the two since they have qualified for the World Cup all seven years by at least reaching the final, whereas the United Arab Emirates have only qualified for the World Cup on three occasions.

Now that the World Cup takes place every two years, so does the championship, which started with the qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup.

Tournaments

For all tournaments, the top three teams qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, except for 2009, where only the top two teams qualified as one of the AFC spots were given to the World Cup hosts United Arab Emirates.

Year	Location		Final				Third Place Play-off
			Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
2006 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		Bahrain	5–3	Japan		Iran	6–4	China
2007 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		United Arab Emirates	4–3	Japan		Iran	6–0	Bahrain
2008 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates		United Arab Emirates	4–3	Japan		Iran	4–1	China
2009^[1] details	Dubai United Arab Emirates		Japan	4–2	Bahrain		Oman	1–1 aet (2–1) pen	Iran
2011 details	Muscat, Oman		Japan	2–1	Oman		Iran	6–2	United Arab Emirates
2013 details	Doha, Qatar		Iran	6–6 aet (5–4) pen	Japan		United Arab Emirates	3–2	Australia
2015 details	Doha, Qatar		Oman	1–1 aet (3–2) pen	Japan		Iran	8–3	Lebanon
2017 details	Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Notes:

1 ^ Qualifying automatically as World Cup hosts, reigning champions, the United Arab Emirates, did not take part in the championship.

Successful nations

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth Place	Top 4
Japan	2 (2009, 2011)	5 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2015)	-	-	7
United Arab Emirates	2 (2007, 2008)	-	1 (2013)	1 (2011)	4
Oman	1 (2015)	1 (2011)	1 (2009)	-	3
Bahrain	1 (2006)	1 (2009)	-	1 (2007)	3
Iran	1 (2013)	-	5 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015)	1 (2009)	7
China	-	-	-	2 (2006, 2008)	2
Australia	-	-	-	1 (2013)	1
Lebanon	-	-	-	1 (2015)	1

Overall standings

Team	Part	Pld	W	WE	WP	L	GF	GA	Dif	Pts
Japan	7	32	23	0	1	8	153	87	+66	70
Iran	7	32	20	1	1	10	165	91	+74	63
United Arab Emirates	6	26	19	0	0	7	109	73	+36	57
Oman	4	22	15	0	3	4	92	52	+40	48
Bahrain	6	27	13	1	2	11	87	76	+11	43
China	7	28	9	0	2	17	85	111	-26	29
Uzbekistan	5	18	4	0	0	14	64	77	-13	12
Lebanon	2	10	3	1	0	6	39	43	-4	11
Australia	2	8	3	0	1	4	25	24	+1	10
Palestine	1	5	2	1	0	2	24	20	+4	8
Iraq	3	10	2	1	0	7	32	53	-21	8
Afghanistan	1	5	2	0	0	3	16	21	-5	6
Thailand	2	7	2	0	0	5	18	27	-9	6
Kuwait	2	6	1	0	0	5	23	30	-7	3
Laos	1	3	1	0	0	2	11	21	-10	3
Saudi Arabia	1	5	1	0	0	4	13	26	-13	3
Qatar	2	8	1	0	0	7	23	41	-18	3
Vietnam	1	3	0	0	0	3	11	14	-3	0
India	1	2	0	0	0	2	5	10	-5	0
Indonesia	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	18	-12	0
Syria	1	3	0	0	0	3	6	19	-13	0
Philippines	3	9	0	0	0	9	13	90	-77	0

Note: Win in Common Time W = 3 Points / Win in Extra Time WE = 2 Points / Win in Penalty shoot-out WP = 1 Point / Lose L = 0 Points

World Cup performance

The following is a performance timeline of the AFC teams who have appeared in the Beach Soccer World Cup since being sanctioned by FIFA in 2005.

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• QF – Quarterfinals
• R1 – Round 1 (group stage)
• q – Qualified for upcoming tournament
•    – Hosts

Team	2005^[†]	2006	2007	2008	2009	2011	2013	2015	2017	Total
Bahrain		QF			R1					2
Iran		R1	R1	R1		R1	QF	QF		6
Japan	4th	QF	R1	R1	QF	R1	QF	QF		8
Oman						R1		R1		2
Thailand	R1									1
United Arab Emirates			R1	R1	R1		R1			4

Notes

1. ^ In 2005, no AFC qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup were held and Japan and Thailand were selected to represent AFC.

External links

• AFC Beach Soccer Championship, the-AFC.com