2014 Euro Beach Soccer League

2014 Euro Beach Soccer League

Tournament details
Dates	20 June – 17 August
Teams	24 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	5 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Russia (4th title)
Runners-up	Spain
Third place	Portugal
Fourth place	Switzerland
Tournament statistics
Top scorer(s)	Llorenç (ESP) and Peremitin (RUS)
Best player(s)	Noel Ott (SUI)
Best goalkeeper	Jesús Donaire (ESP)
← 2013 2015 → All statistics correct as of 1-sep-14.

The 2014 Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) is an annual European competition in beach soccer. The competitions allows national teams to compete in beach soccer in a league format over the summer months. Each season ends with a Superfinal, deciding the competition winner.

This season, there were twelve teams each participating in two divisions in each stage that faced each other in a round-robin system. Division A consisted of the 12 top teams in Europe based on the BSWW European Ranking. Division B consisted of 12 of the lower ranked teams and new entries to the competition. Each division has its own regulations and competition format.

The competition was used as qualifying event for the 2015 European Games. The top three teams from each group in the Superfinal qualified. The top team from the Promotional Finals, excluding the 12th team from Division A, also qualified. Azerbaijan were automatically qualified as hosts.^[1]

During the season, FIFA's Amendments to the Beach Soccer Laws of the Game – 2014 came into effect. This involved such changes as only awarding one point for a penalty shootout win (compared to two points previously) and instead of penalty shootouts being sudden death from the outset, both sides will take three penalty kicks each before sudden death rules come into use.^[2]

Dates	City	Country	Stage
20–22 June	Catania	Italy	Stage 1
27–29 June	Sopot	Poland	Stage 2
11–13 July	Moscow	Russia	Stage 3
8–10 August	Siófok	Hungary	Stage 4
14–17 August	Torredembarra	Spain	Superfinal and Promotion Final

All times are CEST (UTC+02:00).

2014 Euro Beach Soccer League Divisions

DIVISION A				DIVISION B
Belarus	Italy	Russia		Andorra	Czech Republic	Kazakhstan
France	Netherlands	Spain		Austria	England	Moldova
Germany	Poland	Switzerland		Azerbaijan	Estonia	Norway
Greece	Portugal	Ukraine		Bulgaria	Hungary	Turkey

Stage winners

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MVP: Noël Ott
Top scorer: Noël Ott (11 goals)
Best goalkeeper: Sasha Penke

Source:^[3]

Stage winners

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MVP: Witold Ziober
Top scorer: Llorenç Gómez (7 goals)
Best goalkeeper: Nuno Hidalgo

Source:^[4]

	Stage winners (Div. A)
	Stage winners (Div. B)

Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pts
Russia	3	2	0	0	1	13	5	+8	6
Spain	3	2	0	0	1	11	5	+6	6
Belarus	3	2	0	0	1	11	11	0	6
Greece	3	0	0	0	3	5	19	–14	0

Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pts
Estonia	3	2	0	0	1	11	6	+5	6
Azerbaijan	3	2	0	0	1	8	5	+3	6
Moldova	3	1	0	0	2	10	14	–4	3
Kazakhstan	3	0	0	1	2	6	10	–4	1

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MVP: Aleksey Makarov
Top scorer: Ihar Bryshtel, Aleksey Makarov (4 goals)
Best goalkeeper: Dona

Source:^[5]

	Stage winners (Div. A)
	Stage winners (Div. B)

Team	Pld	W	W+	WP	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pts
Ukraine	3	2	0	0	1	13	12	+1	6
Portugal	3	1	0	1	1	13	11	+2	4
Italy	3	0	1	0	2	18	17	+1	2
Germany	3	0	0	1	2	12	16	–4	1

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MVP: Roman Pachev
Top scorer: Gabriele Gori (9 goals)
Best goalkeeper: Stefano Spada

Source:^[6]

The eight best placed teams in Division A (including stage winners and hosts), in which each team played two stages, qualified for the Superfinal. The qualifiers for the Promotion Final were the winners and runners-up in each Division B stage, the best 3rd place team from all of the Division B events, and the last placed team in Division A.

	Team advanced to Superfinal
	Team advanced to Promotional Final

Ranking & tie-breaking criteria: Division A – 1. Points earned 2. Goal difference 3. Goals scored | Division B – 1. Points earned 2. Highest stage placement 3. Goal difference 4. Goals scored.

The top three teams from each group in the Superfinal qualified for the 2015 European Games in Baku. The top team from the Promotional Final, excluding the 12th team from Division A, also qualified. Azerbaijan was automatically qualified as host country.

clinched Championship Final

All kickoff times are of local time in Torredembarra (UTC+02:00).

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• MVP: Noël Ott
• Top scorer: Anatoliy Peremitin, Llorenç Gómez (7 goals)
• Best goalkeeper: Dona

Source:^[7]

Rank	Team
1	Russia
2	Spain
3	Portugal
4	Switzerland
5	Italy
6	Ukraine
7	Belarus
8	Germany

clinched Promotional Final

All kickoff times are of local time in Torredembarra (UTC+02:00).

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Rank	Team
1	Hungary	Promoted Division A
2	Poland	Relegated Division B1
3	Azerbaijan	Stay Division B
4	Turkey
5	Czech Republic
6	England
7	Bulgaria
8	Estonia

1. The Netherlands, a Division A side, did not enter the following year's EBSL in 2015. To ensure 12 teams in the top division in 2015 as normal, BSWW retrospectively awarded promotion to the runners-up of the 2014 Promotion Final as well as the winners, in the lead up to the start of the 2015 season. The runners-up happened to be the relegated side, Poland, who ultimately did not see relegation materialise for this reason and continued to compete in Division A.

• Group distribution for EBSL 2014 announced. Beach Soccer Worldwide.

• Beach Soccer Worldwide