2020 Euro Beach Soccer League

2020 Euro Beach Soccer League
	Logo of the Superfinal.
Tournament details
Host country	Portugal
Dates	2–6 September (Division A); TBA (Division B)
Teams	TBA (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	TBA (in TBA host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Portugal (7th title)
Runners-up	Switzerland
Third place	Ukraine
Fourth place	France
Tournament statistics
Matches played	10
Goals scored	83 (8.3 per match)

The 2020 Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) is the 23rd edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League, the annual, premier competition in European beach soccer contested between men's national teams. It is organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW).

Superfinal, Nazaré

Locations of the Promotion Final and the Superfinal of the 2020 Euro Beach Soccer League

This season, the competing teams continue to take part in two divisions: the top tier (Division A) – the teams return from last season's top tier as none were relegated – and the bottom tier (Division B), accommodating nations who did not gain promotion from last season, teams making their debut, and nations returning after an absence from competing in recent years.

The season has been greatly affected by the 2019–20 COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an immensely shortened campaign. Originally due to start in June, the start of the season was postponed until September which ultimately saw the entire regular season cancelled. Therefore, all competing teams enter straight into their respective divisions' post-season events: nations of Division A into the Superfinal, to compete to become the winners of this year's EBSL, and countries of Division B into the Promotion Final, to try to earn a spot in Division A next year.[1] However, due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, many nations have chosen not to participate.[2]

Portugal were the defending champions and successfully retained their title, earning their seventh European crown.

Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic

The preliminary 2020 EBSL season schedule was released in November 2019.[3] It was planned that the regular season, taking place during June and July, would consist of five stages of fixtures in Moscow (Russia), Naples (Italy), Nazaré (Portugal), Budapest (Hungary) and one unnamed location.[4]

In March 2020, with the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic increasing rapidly across Europe, Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) announced the suspension of all beach soccer competitions under their auspices until at least June to protect the health of all those involved.[5] In May, with the situation yet to improve, BSWW extended the suspension until September[6] – typically this is the end of the EBSL season. However, in July, with the situation in Europe easing, BSWW announced that the EBSL season will begin in August but with major format changes due to the virus's effect:[1][7]

Due to the extreme delay to the start of the season, the entire regular season has been cancelled.
Only the finals will go ahead; all teams enter straight into their respective divisions' post-season event (usually reserved for the top eight teams from each division at the end of the regular season).
The usual format of the post-season events has been abandoned to accommodate the different number of participating teams.
There will be no relegation from Division A (in part, this is a provision for the possibility of nations in Division A choosing not to participate out of health and safety concerns surrounding the ongoing pandemic – they will not be penalised for doing so).

Calendar and locations

The original calendar was revealed on 8 July 2020.[1]

Chișinău, Moldova was to host the Promotion Final from 19 to 23 August, whilst Figueira da Foz, Portugal was to host the Superfinal from 1–6 September.[1] Organisers, BSWW, stressed the schedule may be changed depending on the future state of the COVID-19 Pandemic;[1] changes were subsequently made:

The local organisers in Figueira da Foz decided to defer hosting until 2021 due to the requirement of having to play their event behind closed doors this year.[8] Later, due to cross-border travel restrictions because of the pandemic, BSWW and the Moldovan Football Federation (FMF) agreed to postpone Chișinău's hosting until 2021 as well.[9] The events were rescheduled to take place as follows:[9][2]

Phase	Dates	Country	City	Stage	Divisions
Regular season	Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
Post-season/ Finals	2–6 September	Portugal	Nazaré	Superfinal	A
Post-season/ Finals	TBA	TBA	TBA	Promotion Final		B

Teams

The numbers in parentheses show the European ranking of each team prior to the start of the season, out of 37 nations.[10]

Division A

With COVID-19 concerns and restrictions in mind,[11] of the 12 sides in the top tier, only five have decided to participate as follows:[2]

Portugal (1st)
~~Italy (2nd)~~
~~Russia (3rd)~~
~~Spain (4th)~~
Switzerland (5th)
~~Belarus (6th)~~

Ukraine (7th)
France (8th)
~~Poland (9th)~~
Germany (10th)
~~Azerbaijan (11th)~~
~~Turkey (13th)~~

Division B

Up to 16 teams are expected.[7]

Superfinal

Matches are listed as local time in Nazaré, WEST (UTC+1)

All matches took place at the Estádio do Viveiro on Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach). Due to COVID-19 concerns, the matches were played behind closed doors.[12]

The Superfinal was played in a single round-robin format, involving one group of all five teams. The team with the most points after all games were completed were crowned EBSL champions.[2]

As per the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the competition, no team was relegated to Division B this season.

Results

Pos	Team	Pld	W	WP	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Result
1	Portugal (H)	4	4	0	0	20	7	+13	12	EBSL Champions (7th title)
2	Switzerland	4	3	0	1	26	15	+11	9	Runners-up
3	Ukraine	4	1	1	2	14	13	+1	4	Third place
4	France	4	1	0	3	9	28	–19	3
5	Germany	4	0	0	4	14	20	–6	0

Key: (H) Hosts

2 September 2020

16:00

Ukraine	3–3	Germany
Hoeveler 19' (o.g.) Pashko 24' Voitok 31'	Report(ru)	20', 35' Metzler 36' Biermann
Penalties
Voitok Pashko Shcherytsia Khyzhniak Zavorotnyi	4–3	Meltzer Baaske Mutulingam Nowak Weirauch

2 September 2020