Russia is bidding for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup!
This is not an outdated piece of news dating a decade ago, but the latest news which was greeted with great delight by all beach soccer fans. On 26 June 2019 the Executive Committee of the Football Union of Russia has approved Russia’s bid to host the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2021 in Russia, in the city of Moscow.
It is still unknown who else will compete with the Russian capital for the right to host the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2021, but one thing is already clear: you will hardly find a more deserving hosting city. The choice of Moscow guarantees the highest level of organization of the event, the greatest supporters’ interest as well as the best conditions both for participants and guests.
Moscow hosted its first major beach soccer event in December 2005 when Luzhniki welcomed the Euro Beach Soccer Cup Indoor. Being a new sport for Russia, the winter tournament caused a lot of interest among Muscovites. More than seven thousand people attended the final match Russia vs Switzerland.
Since 2010 Moscow has been hosting European Beach Soccer League stages, one of the most popular beach soccer tournament. In 2011 a huge number of spectators attended the Poklonnaya Hill to watch the European Beach Soccer League Superfinal Moscow, a year later the Park Pobedy welcomed FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 Qualifier Europe. A lot of athletes and delegates, participating in that event, admit that the centre of Moscow is the most fascinating venue where they have ever played beach soccer.
In the end of July 2019, Moscow is hosting the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifier Europe and Luzhniki will see the top 20 European national beach soccer teams competing for the 5 slots to qualify for the main event of the last two years, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Paraguay 2019, and all the participants will have another chance to prove that you will not find a better beach soccer venue other than hospitable, modern and in-love-with-sport Moscow.
FIFA has recently granted small towns the right to host beach soccer world cups. However, the wish to promote beach soccer in different parts of the world by hosting events, unfortunately, affects the numbers of attendants and the image of our sport. For example, the average number of spectators at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 amounted only to 1795 people. This number is far less than the attendance numbers of many matches of the Russian Beach Soccer Championship or Russian Beach Soccer Cup, not even to mention the European Beach Soccer League stages organised in Moscow.
The event in Rio de Janeiro in 2006 is the most attended FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup with 5619 as an average amount of spectators per each match. Marseille in 2008 and Dubai in 2009 can boast it too. The conclusion is obvious: it is time to come back to big cities, and Moscow
suits it perfectly. FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Russia 2021 could have a chance to become the most attended in history. Moreover, it certainly will be the best one in terms of organization.
Russia, as no one else in the world, knows how to organize and host large sports events: Olympic Games in Sochi, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2015 World Aquatics Championships, Summer Universiade in Kazan, Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, and 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow. It is not even a complete list of grand sports events Russia has hosted during the recent years.
Although Russia has been developing beach soccer for less than 15 years, it has rapidly managed to win the love of both Russian fans and athletes. The Russian Super League has been holding the status of one of the strongest national beach soccer championships in the world for many years, and the Russian Beach Soccer Cup is the most representative national beach soccer tournament worldwide. Russia is particularly proud of its national beach soccer team. The team, nicknamed THE RED MACHINE, is a twice FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup holders and a numerous winner of all the ever-existing prestigious beach soccer competitions.
Taking into account all the above, the Russian government has approved the bid to host the most prestigious beach soccer tournament in our country in 2021 and recommended the Football Union of Russia to launch bidding campaign with Moscow as a hosting city.
FIFA shall be confident that the decision taken in favor of Russia will automatically mean that the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2021 will be a real beach soccer festival, a great celebration and all its participants and guests will remember it for a long time. Aleksandr Alaev, the FUR General Secretary, is confident of that too.
“On 26 June 2019, the FUR Executive Committee approved the Moscow’s bid to host the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2021, a high-profile and most prestigious tournament of this sport, which has become a milestone event for beach soccer in Russia. We are confident that we have every chance to win, and currently we are working on the bid.
When, in 2005, Rio de Janeiro hosted FIFA’s first Beach Soccer World Cup in the Copacabana beach we did not even dare to dream that one day we would bid for the right to host such a great tournament in our country. But since then we have come a long way and we definitely deserve it. In 2018, we hosted the best World Cup in FIFA’s history and now our goal is to repeat the success with FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
Over the last 15 years Russia national beach soccer team has won a large number of titles, including FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Champion, twice. In its’ turn, during the last 10 years, Moscow has annually hosted major beach soccer events such as EBSL stages and EBSL Super Final, the Euro Beach Super Cup 2012, as well as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2013 Qualifier Europe. In July Moscow is welcoming a new big event, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2019 Qualifier Europe, the final tournament of which will take place in Paraguay from 21 November till 1 December 2019.
“We appreciate the Government of the Russian Federation, the Government of Moscow, and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation for their support for our bid. I am convinced that the experience gained over the years will help us to organize another excellent tournament" – the FUR official website quotes Aleksandr Alaev as saying.