The 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Overall, this was the 21st 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 sixth tournament to take place biennially; the World Cup took place annually until 2009. The tournament took place in Moscow, capital of Russia, between 19 and 29 August 2021.
The tournament was first intimated in November 2017 at the FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop when it was announced that the World Cup would continue to be held every two years for between 2018 and 2024. The bidding process was opened by FIFA in May 2019 and concluded with the selection of Russia as the hosts in October 2019.
Portugal were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the group stage. They became the first time defending champions in the tournament's history to be eliminated in the group stage.
The hosts Russia, played as the RFU, won their third World Cup, beating Japan in the final.
Host selection
The bidding schedule to determine the hosts was as follows:
9 May 2019 – FIFA opens the bidding process. 5 June 2019 – Deadline for national associations to declare interest of hosting to FIFA. 7 June 2019 – FIFA circulates documents detailing the application campaign and conditions of participation to the bidding associations to analyse. 1 July 2019 – Deadline for associations to reaffirm their bidding intentions by agreeing to the terms of the documents. 30 August 2019 – Deadline for nations to prepare and submit their complete bidding packages to be evaluated by FIFA. 24 October 2019 – Hosts announced by FIFA.
On 11 September 2019, FIFA revealed that three associations had submitted bids through to the final stage of the process: (; Football Federation of Chile) (Salvadoran Football Federation) (Russian Football Union)
Confirmation of the awarding of hosting rights to Russia was announced at the FIFA Council meeting in Shanghai, China on 24 October 2019.
Qualification
A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Russia who qualified automatically as hosts, 15 other teams qualified from six separate continental competitions.
The process of qualification to the World Cup finals began and ended in 2021.
