Italy, Brazil and Iran the teams to beat as the 2024 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup kicks-off

Sixteen sides have progressed to the finals of the 2024 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup which gets underway in Dubai on 15 February and runs through to the final game on the 25th.

Dubai’s Design District will be the setting for the action with beach soccer infamous for serving up some eye-catching goals with venomous volleys, outrageous over-head kicks and spectacular strikes all part and parcel of the sport.

Reigning champions Russia are absent from this year’s competition due to the ongoing indefinite FIFA sporting ban linked to the nation’s invasion of Ukraine which sees five-time champions Brazil take on the mantle as tournament favourites with the Seleçao absent from the final for a decade as other nations such as Tahiti, Senegal, Japan and El Salvador embrace the sport and see their national teams now able to compete at elite levels.

The sixteen competing sides are split into four groups of four teams with the top two per group advancing to the quarter-final stage.

Beach Soccer: basic rules of the game

Games are divided into three 12-minute periods, with a three-minute break between each period and the match stopwatch is paused in the event of a goal, a foul or an injury.

A match can only be won or lost and never ends in a draw. If the scores are tied at the end of the game, the rules stipulate that a three-minute period of extra time must be played. If there is still no winner after this, the match must be decided by penalty kicks with all five players per team taking a kick.

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The playing sandy area must be between 35 and 37 metres long and between 26 and 28 metres wide, and marked with lines 10 centimetres wide. The goals are 2.2 metres high and 5.5 metres wide with the ball being a little lighter tran a traditional match ball weight between 400 and 440 grams.

The likes of Eric Cantona, Luther Blissett, Claudio Gentile, Junior, Matt Le Tissier, Romario, Julio Salinas, the Van de Kerkhof twins and Zico have all tried their hand at the sport representing their nations at beach soccer.