The 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 10th FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the premier international beach soccer championship contested by men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Overall, this was the 20th edition of a world cup in beach soccer since the establishment of the Beach Soccer World Championships which ran from 1995 to 2004 but was not governed by FIFA. This was the fifth tournament to take place under the biennial basis; the World Cup now takes place once every two years, having taken place annually until 2009.
The tournament was confirmed publicly on 3 November 2017, during the annual FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop in Dubai as part of the recently renewed partnership between FIFA and Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). In October 2018, it was announced that the tournament would take place in Paraguay in the city of Luque, near the capital, Asunción, between 21 November and 1 December 2019. Fifteen teams advanced through preliminary continental qualification competitions, which started in September 2018 and ended in July 2019, to join the hosts in the final tournament which included Belarus as the sole team making their debut at the finals and notably saw the third placed team of the previous edition, Iran, fail to qualify. This was the first FIFA tournament to be hosted by Paraguay, the first edition of the World Cup held in South America since 2007, and the first time a landlocked country hosted beach soccer's principal event.
Following two narrow loses, hosts Paraguay were eliminated at the group stage. Brazil were the defending champions, but were defeated at the quarter-finals stage by Russia in what was a repeat of the scenario of 2015, thereby condemning Brazil to their joint-worst ever result. Portugal won the tournament, besting Italy in the final to claim their second FIFA World Cup crown (following 2015) and third world title overall (including the 2001 World Championships); Italy collected a second runners-up medal, following 2008. For the first time, the podium teams were all European nations. Japan finished fourth, matching their best ever placing previously achieved in 2005. A joint-record tally of 286 goals were scored (with 2006).
Madjer of Portugal made his last international beach soccer tournament appearance at this competition. The all-time top scorer of the competition, often heralded as the best player of all time, announced his retirement following the final, aged 42.
Host selection
The bidding schedule to determine the hosts was as follows:
14 June 2018 – FIFA opens bidding process. 29 June 2018 – Deadline for national associations to declare interest of hosting to FIFA. 6 July 2018 – FIFA send documents detailing the application campaign and conditions of participation for associations to analyse. 27 July 2018 – Deadline for associations to agree to terms of documents and submit an official bid. 14 September 2018 – Deadline for nations to prepare and submit their complete bidding packages to be evaluated by FIFA. 26 October 2018 – Hosts announced by FIFA.
Countries known to have declared interest in bidding to host the competition are inclusive of but not exclusive to:
On 1 October 2018, the FIFA Organising Committee recommended hosting be awarded to Paraguay as they were the only association to make an official bid after the initial declaration of interest stage. Confirmation of the awarding of hosting rights to Paraguay was announced at the FIFA Council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on 26 October 2018.
Qualification
A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Paraguay who qualified automatically as hosts, 15 other teams qualified from six separate continental competitions.
The slot allocation for each confederation was decided at the FIFA Council meeting on 26 October 2018.