2018 Euro Beach Soccer League
The 2018 Euro Beach Soccer League was the 21st edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League, the annual, premier competition in European beach soccer contested between men's national teams. It was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide, in a league and play-off format.
This season, teams continued to take part in two divisions, the top tier and the bottom tier. 12 teams continued to contest Division A, consisting of the top 11 finishers from last year plus Turkey who were promoted to the top tier. Whilst Division B accommodated 15 nations: 13 nations who did not gain promotion from last season, Georgia who made their debut, plus Greece who were relegated from the top tier at the end of last season. No nations returned after an absence from competing in recent years, however, the Netherlands, who had competed in the last two seasons, did not enter this year.
A total of five stages of fixtures were scheduled during the regular season. Each team from Division A played in two stages whilst each team in Division B played in one. At each stage the participating nations earned points for the overall league tables.
At the end of the regular season, according to the league tables, the eight best teams in Division A advanced to the post-season event, the Superfinal, to compete to become the winners of this year's EBSL. Meanwhile, the top seven teams in Division B and the team ranked bottom of Division A played in a different post-season event, the Promotion Final, to try to earn a spot in Division A next year.
The top scorer of the 2002 season, Alan of Portugal, announced his retirement on 11 June; Alan competed in all 20 EBSL seasons since the inaugural edition in 1998, meaning this year marked the first EBSL season in which he did not feature.
The league also acted as the qualification route to the 2019 European Games; the top six teams of the Superfinal plus the Promotion Final winners qualified to joint hosts Belarus.
Germany, the defending Division A team in the Promotion Final, beat Romania in the final to win the event, therefore retaining their Division A status for next season. Russia were the defending champions but were knocked out of title-winning contention in the group stage of the Superfinal, ultimately finishing fourth in the post-season event, just the second time, that Russia failed to finish in the top three. The concluding match of the Superfinal was contested between Italy and Spain, who were looking to end 13 and 12-year waits since their last respective EBSL titles. Italy, on home sand, won the match on penalties to claim their second European title.
Calendar and locations
The schedule was announced on 23 March.For the first time, Azerbaijan and Belarus hosted an EBSL regular season stage. It was also the first time since the 2013 season that no nations in Division B hosted a stage, only the second time this had occurred since divisions were introduced in 2002.
Teams
The following teams have entered this season, in the following divisions.The numbers in parentheses show the European ranking of each team prior to the start of the season, out of 36 nations.
Division A
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Division B
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Notes:
All matches took place at the Baku Beach Arena, part of the Flag Square cluster of the European Games Park in Sabail raion, with a capacity of 3,900. The stadium previously hosted the beach soccer event at the 2015 European Games.
There were no Division B fixtures during this stage.
All matches took place at the Estádio do Viveiro on Praia de Nazaré, in tandem with the hosting of the 2018 Women's Euro Beach Soccer Cup.
The stadium had recently been undergoing redevelopment, increasing its capacity from 1,600 to 2,200. However, one part of the stadium was still awaiting upgrades, meaning the new capacity figure was yet to be fully reached.
During this round, Bulgaria won a stage title for the first time.
Stage 1 (Baku, 22–24 June)
Matches are listed as local time in Baku, AZT .All matches took place at the Baku Beach Arena, part of the Flag Square cluster of the European Games Park in Sabail raion, with a capacity of 3,900. The stadium previously hosted the beach soccer event at the 2015 European Games.
There were no Division B fixtures during this stage.
Division A
Group 1
| Team | ||||||||||
| 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 5 | +9 | 9 | |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 6 | |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 11 | –6 | 3 | |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 12 | –6 | 0 |
Group 2
| Team | ||||||||||
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 9 | +2 | 7 | |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 21 | 8 | +13 | 6 | |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 9 | –3 | 3 | |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 17 | –12 | 0 |
Awards
The following were presented after the conclusion of the final day's matches.Stage 2 (Nazaré, 6–8 July)
Matches are listed as local time in Nazaré, WESTAll matches took place at the Estádio do Viveiro on Praia de Nazaré, in tandem with the hosting of the 2018 Women's Euro Beach Soccer Cup.
The stadium had recently been undergoing redevelopment, increasing its capacity from 1,600 to 2,200. However, one part of the stadium was still awaiting upgrades, meaning the new capacity figure was yet to be fully reached.
During this round, Bulgaria won a stage title for the first time.
Division A
Division BGroup 1
Group 2
The Serbia vs. Estonia match was the first goalless draw in the 20-year history of the EBSL. AwardsThe following were presented after the conclusion of the final day's matches. Individual awards apply to Division A only.Stage 3 (Moscow, 20–22 July)Matches are listed as local time in Moscow, MSK .All matches took place at Yantar Beach Soccer Stadium in the district of Strogino, with a capacity of 2,500. This was the eighth time Moscow hosted an EBSL event, drawing level with Marseille as the cities to host the most events in the league's history. During this round, Kazakhstan won an EBSL stage title for the first time. Division A
Switzerland, Azerbaijan and Poland are ranked accordingly based on their three-way head-to-head results Division B
AwardsThe following were presented after the conclusion of the final day's matches. Individual awards apply to Division A only.Stage 4 (Minsk, 3–5 August)Matches are listed as local time in Minsk, FET .All matches took place at the National Beach Soccer Stadium, part of the Olympic Sports Complex in Pyershamayski District, with a capacity of 1,300. With construction beginning on 8 June, the stadium was a, commissioned specifically for the purpose of hosting the beach soccer event at the 2019 European Games; this stage was organised to take place in Minsk to serve as test event for the new venue ahead of the upcoming games. There were no Division B fixtures during this stage; this contributes to the fact this was the first stage to feature just four teams since the Moscow stage of the 2013 season. Division A
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Ihar Bryshtel
Llorenç Gomez
Simone Del Mestre