Euro Winners Cup

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Euro Winners Cup
Euro Winners Cup logo 2016 onward.png
Logo introduced in 2016
Founded9 October 2012[1]
RegionEurope
Number of teams~55
Related competitionsWomen's Euro Winners Cup
Current championsRussia Kristall (4th title)
Most successful club(s)Russia Kristall (4 titles)
WebsiteBeach Soccer Worldwide
2021 Euro Winners Cup

The Euro Winners Cup (EWC) is an annual, continental beach soccer club competition contested between top-division European men's teams; the clubs that are their country's national league/championship champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) from countries all across Europe take part.

Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the championship is viewed as the sport's version of the UEFA Champions League in association football.[2][3][4]

Featuring many of the world's best beach soccer players and clubs, the championship offers the strongest level of club competition on the old continent.[5] It is therefore the most prestigious club beach soccer championship in Europe, the winners becoming continental champions.

Established in 2013 as a 20 team, five-day event,[6] domestic beach soccer advancement in Europe has seen the tournament rapidly expand;[2] in 2017, BSWW introduced a preliminary qualifying round, open to all clubs not automatically qualified into the subsequent main round.[7] This has doubled the competition's length to 10 days, with over 50 clubs now participating. BSWW also began a women's edition in 2016.[8]

Kristall of Saint Petersburg, Russia are the most successful club with four titles.

Organisation[]

Note: Qualification, Format – as of 2018

Founding[]

The Riviera delle Palme at San Benedetto hosted the inaugural edition

The idea of the Euro Winners Cup had been "worked on for so much time", finally being founded on 9 October 2012 after an agreement was signed between BSWW and the Comune of San Benedetto del Tronto to host the first edition in the Italian city the following spring.[1]

At the signing, Gabino Renales (BSWW General Manager) said with increasing numbers of national leagues in Europe and the growing level of competitiveness in them, taking clubs onto an international scene was something the sport was demanding and hence the Euro Winners Cup was created to satisfy this craving.[1]

Qualification[]

Current system[]

The champions of each of Europe's national beach soccer leagues (or championships) qualify to play in the event. The host country is allowed to enter two additional clubs – the club based in the host city of the event and their national league runners-up. The defending champions also earn automatic qualification along with their country's league title winners.[7] Other runners-up may be accepted at the discretion of BSWW.

Clubs can also qualify via the Preliminary Round introduced in 2017 – a qualifying stage that is open to application from all clubs that did not qualify automatically as domestic league champions, regardless of where they placed in their nation's league. The successful clubs progress to the Main Round.[9]

Future[]

BSWW have said that, in the future, qualification may be switched to a system based on the UEFA coefficient, in which national leagues ranked as the strongest receive multiple berths in the competition, similar to the situation in the UEFA Champions League. However, BSWW are currently committed to ensuring weaker teams have a fair chance.[10]

The Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian leagues are currently viewed as the strongest national club championships in Europe by BSWW;[11] the latter the very best of the four. Bar Spain, BSWW say these leagues are deserving of multiple clubs qualifying to the EWC if a switch was made to a UEFA coefficient system; Spain need to invest more in their domestic championship.[10]

Format[]

Currently a 10-day event, the tournament takes place in late May or/and early June.

  • Days 1–3: The Preliminary Round takes place. The participating clubs are split into groups (typically of four) competing in a round robin format.
  • Days 4–6: The Main Round – the best ranking teams from the Preliminary Round proceed to join the automatic qualifiers (league winners) in the Main Round. The clubs are split into groups (typically of four) competing in a round robin format.
  • Days 7–10: The Knockout stage – 16 clubs, the Main Round's group winners and best runners-up, advance to the Knockout stage. The teams compete in single-elimination matches; the Round of 16 (day 7), the quarter-finals (day 8), semi-finals (9) and ending with the final (10). Consolation matches are also played to determine the final rankings involving the clubs knocked out of these rounds.

Results[]

Year Location № of clubs Final Third place play-off
Winners Result Runners-up 3rd place Result 4th place
2013 Italy San Benedetto, Italy 20 Lokomotiv Moscow Russia 3–0 Ukraine Griffin Kyiv Beşiktaş Turkey 3–1 Switzerland Grasshoppers
2014 Italy Catania, Italy 25 Kristall Russia 2–0 Italy Milano Braga Portugal 4–1 Switzerland Sable Dancers Bern
2015 Italy Catania, Italy 28 Kristall Russia 6–2 Italy Catania Vybor Ukraine 3–2 (a.e.t.) Russia Lokomotiv Moscow
2016 Italy Catania, Italy 32 Viareggio Italy 6–6 (a.e.t.)[A] Ukraine Artur Music Braga Portugal 5–4 Italy Catania
2017 Portugal Nazaré, Portugal 54 Braga Portugal 8–5 Ukraine Artur Music Lokomotiv Moscow Russia 5–4 Russia Delta Saratov
2018 Portugal Nazaré, Portugal 58 Braga Portugal 3–3 (a.e.t.)[B] Russia Kristall KP Łódź Poland 4–3 Russia Lokomotiv Moscow
2019 Portugal Nazaré, Portugal 60 Braga Portugal 6–0 Poland KP Łódź Levante Spain 7–6 Russia Delta Saratov
2020 Portugal Nazaré, Portugal 27 Kristall Russia 3–3 (a.e.t.)[C] Portugal Braga Real Münster Germany 7–6 Spain Marbella
2021 Portugal Nazaré, Portugal[12] 50 Kristall Russia 6–3 Portugal Braga San Francisco Spain 7–4 Germany Real Münster
A. ^ Viareggio won the penalty shootout 7–6.
B. ^ Braga won the penalty shootout 5–4.
C. ^ Kristall won the penalty shootout 1–0.

Performance[]

Former logo (2013–2015)

Successful clubs[]

Team Winners Runners-up Third place
Russia Kristall 4 (2014, 2015, 2020, 2021) 1 (2018) –
Portugal Braga 3 (2017, 2018, 2019) 2 (2020, 2021) 2 (2014, 2016)
Russia Lokomotiv Moscow 1 (2013) – 1 (2017)
Italy Viareggio 1 (2016) – –
Ukraine Artur Music – 2 (2016, 2017) –
Poland KP Łódź – 1 (2019) 1 (2018)
Italy Catania – 1 (2015) –
Italy Milano – 1 (2014) –
Ukraine Griffin Kyiv – 1 (2013) –
Spain San Francisco – – 1 (2021)
Germany Real Münster – – 1 (2020)
Spain Levante – – 1 (2019)
Ukraine Vybor – – 1 (2015)
Turkey Beşiktaş – – 1 (2013)

Successful nations[]

Nation Winners Runners-up Third place
 Russia 5 1 1
 Portugal 3 2 2
 Italy 1 2 0
 Ukraine 0 3 1
 Poland 0 1 1
 Spain 0 0 2
 Germany 0 0 1
 Turkey 0 0 1

Awards[]

Year Top goalscorer(s) Gls Best player Best goalkeeper Ref.
2013 Switzerland Dejan Stankovic (Switzerland Grasshoppers) 13 Russia Egor Shaykov (Russia Lokomotiv Moscow) Ukraine Vitalii Sydorenko (Ukraine Griffin Kyiv) [1]
2014 Portugal Léo Martins (Italy Milano) 13 Brazil Bruno Xavier (Russia Kristall) Spain Dona (Portugal Braga) [2]
2015 Belarus Ihar Brishtel (Ukraine Vybor) 14 Brazil Datinha (Russia Kristall) Italy Simone Del Mestre (Italy Catania) [3]
2016 Italy Gabriele Gori (Italy Viareggio) 18 Brazil Rodrigo (Italy Catania) Ukraine Vitalii Sydorenko (Ukraine Artur Music) [4]
2017 Italy Gabriele Gori (Italy Viareggio) 18 Brazil Mauricinho (Portugal Braga) Ukraine Vitalii Sydorenko (Ukraine Artur Music) [5]
2018 Spain Llorenç Gómez (Israel Kfar Qassem) 16 Brazil Mauricinho (Russia Kristall) Spain Dona (Portugal Braga) [6]
2019 Italy Gabriele Gori (Ukraine Artur Music) 26 Portugal Jordan Santos (Portugal Braga) Poland Dariusz Słowiński (Poland KP Łódź) [7]
2020 Spain Llorenç Gómez (Ukraine Artur Music) 22 Brazil Mauricinho (Russia Kristall) Brazil Rafa Padilha ( Braga) [8]
2021 Portugal Bernardo Lopes (Portugal GRAP) 18 Brazil Mauricinho (Russia Kristall) Russia Maxim Chuzhkov (Russia Kristall) [9]

Appearances & performance timeline[]

The following is an appearance and performance timeline of the countries who have been represented by clubs at the Euro Winners Cup. It shows which countries were represented at each edition and by how many clubs. The colour of the cells indicates the furthest any of that country's clubs progressed in the competition in that edition, corresponding to the key below. Clubs which did not progress passed the preliminary round are not counted.

31 members of UEFA have been represented by at least one club in at least one edition to date. A 32nd member, Slovakia, were due to enter a club in 2016 but said club ulitmately withdrew before the tournament began.

Key
   Champions Round of 32[b]
Runners-up Group stage
Third place 3 No. of clubs entered
Fourth Place × Did not enter a club
Quarter-finals Host country
Round of 16[a] —
a. Not used in 2013.
b. Not used in 2013–18, 20.
Timeline
Years
Country
 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan 1 × 1 × × × × × × 2
Belarus Belarus 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 × × 7
Belgium Belgium × × 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 10
Bulgaria Bulgaria × 1 1 1 1 1 1 × 1 7
Czech Republic Czech Republic × 1 1 × × 1 1 × 1 5
Denmark Denmark × × × 1 × 1 1 × 1 4
England England 1 1 1 2 1 × 1 1 × 8
Estonia Estonia × 1 1 1 1 1 1 × × 6
Finland Finland × × × × × × 1 × × 1
France France 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 11
Georgia (country) Georgia × × 1 1 1 1 1 × 2 7
Germany Germany × 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 11
Greece Greece 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 10
Hungary Hungary 1 1 1 1 1 × 1 × × 6
Israel Israel 1 1 × 1 1 1 × × 2 7
Italy Italy 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 × 1 19
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan × 1 1 × 1 × × × × 3
Latvia Latvia 1 1 × 1 1 1 1 × × 6
Lithuania Lithuania × × × 1 × 1 × × × 2
Moldova Moldova 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 11
Netherlands Netherlands 1 1 × 1 1 1 1 × × 6
Norway Norway × × × × × 1 × × × 1
Poland Poland 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 × × 12
Portugal Portugal 1 1 1 1 4 5 10 7 17 47
Romania Romania × × 1 1 1 1 × 1 × 5
Russia Russia 1 2 2 3 5 2 5 2 4 26
Spain Spain 1 1 2 1 2 2 3 2 5 19
Sweden Sweden × × × × 1 × × 1 2 4
Switzerland Switzerland 1 1 1 2 1 × 1 1 × 8
Turkey Turkey 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 × × 8
Ukraine Ukraine 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 17
Total teams 20 25 28 32 36 34 44 27 50 296
Total countries 18 22 23 25 25 24 24 13 16 –

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "The Euro Winners Cup comes true". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 9 October 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Euro Winners Cup 2015 to be biggest yet". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 21 May 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Beachsoccerteam VIOD klaar voor Champions League avontuur" (in Dutch). nieuwedockumercourant.nl. 25 May 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  4. ^ "Euro Winners Cup (Champions League) Havana Shots Aargau Damen" (in German). funders.ch. 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  5. ^ "Euro Winners Cup confirmed in Catania". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  6. ^ "20 teams take part in Euro Winners Cup!". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  7. ^ a b "Euro Winners Cup 2017 to feature preliminary round". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  8. ^ "Euro Winners Cup 2016 to feature Women's competition". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  9. ^ "Euro Winners Cup 2017: Preliminary phase open for all". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  10. ^ a b "Куско: чемпионат мира-2019 пройдёт в ноябре. Я догадываюсь, где, но сказать не могу" (in Russian). Beach Soccer Worldwide. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  11. ^ "Working Group meet in BSWW headquarters". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  12. ^ Euro Winners Cup 2021 teams confirmed. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 6 July 2021.

External links[]

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