2004 Euro Beach Soccer League

2004 Euro Beach Soccer League
Tournament details
Dates2 July – 5 September
Teams18 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)10 (in 10 host cities)
Final positions
Champions France (1st title)
Runners-up Portugal
Third place Ukraine
Fourth place Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played77
Goals scored834 (10.83 per match)
Top scorer(s)Portugal Madjer
Best player(s)Spain David Cordon
Best goalkeeperSpain Roberto Valeiro
← 2003
2005 →
In 2004, BSWW rebranded the competition from the European Pro Beach Soccer League to the Euro Beach Soccer League. With the Pro dropped from the title and European shortened to Euro, this prompted the design of a new logo to reflect the new title. Mastercard became lead sponsors in 2004 and as such their logo was also included in the wider design. This holistic logo was used until its last use in 2006.
class=notpageimage|
Locations of the events of the 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League
Division A events
Division B events
Division A, B & C events
Superfinal

The 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League, was the seventh edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), originally known as the European Pro Beach Soccer League, the premier beach soccer competition contested between European men's national teams, occurring annually since its establishment in 1998. The league was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) between July 2 and September 5, 2004 in ten different nations across Europe.

This season, BSWW introduced a third division, Division C, to the EBSL alongside the already existing Divisions A and B. Each team continued, as in the previous seasons, to compete in their respective division, including the newly added Division C nations, to try and earn a place in the season-finale event, the Superfinal, in which the league title was then contested directly.[1]

Spain, who entered as defending champions, had looked odds on favourites to reclaim their title after dominating the top Division but suffered a shock loss to the Division C qualifiers and debutants, Ukraine, in the first round of the Superfinal. This opened the door for France, who had originally narrowly qualified for the season-finale, to ultimately be crowned champions, winning their first and to date only European title.[2]

The league also doubled as the qualification process for the first FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2005. The nations finishing in first, second and third place qualified directly whilst the teams in fourth through seventh place competed in a final play off stage to decide which nation would gain the remaining berth at the World Cup.[3]

  1. ^ "EPBSL Promoters Meeting in Barcelona". beachsoccer.com. 6 November 2003. Archived from the original on 22 December 2003. Retrieved 26 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ "France Winner of the MasterCard EuroBSLeague Super Final in Monaco..." beachsoccer.com. 5 September 2004. Archived from the original on 6 August 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifiers". fifa.com. 5 April 2005. Archived from the original on 5 April 2005. Retrieved 28 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)