Despite having five allocated spots for European nations at the World Cup, this was reduced to four for the 2017 edition as the World Cup hosts, the Bahamas, automatically claimed one of the two spots allocated to CONCACAF. And so as the confederation with the most slots, one UEFA spot was transferred over to CONCACAF to ensure that two nations would still have the opportunity to qualify from North America.[2]
The format of the tournament was a round-robin group stage followed by the top ranking nations competing in a second round-robin group stage. The four top ranking nations from the second group stage, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, and Italy, qualified for the World Cup and moved on to the knockout stage to ultimately crown a champion of the event.[3]
Teams and draw
A record 28 teams was planned to compete in this qualifier, one more than in the 2011 edition also held in Italy.[4]
In the draw, held on 3 August 2016, teams were split into four pots according to their European ranking, and drawn into seven groups so that each group included a team from each pot.[5]
^ Austria withdrew before the start of the tournament due to "administrative reasons" preventing them from travelling to Jesolo. All of the scheduled matches involving them were subsequently cancelled.[6]
Note: Due to Austria's withdrawal, only results against the each groups' first- and second-placed teams were counted. Results against the teams that finished fourth in their group were discounted.
Referee: Antonio Joaquim Pereira Almeida (Portugal)
Final stage
The top team from each group in the second stage advance to the semi-finals to play for the title. The other teams eliminated from the second stage advance to classification play-offs (5th to 8th place, 9th to 12th place, 13th to 16th place) depending on their positions.
1 No qualifiers took place; representatives were selected by the confederation. 2 CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held a joint championship for qualification. 3 Qualification was achieved through the Euro Beach Soccer League. (p) This indicates an additional play-off round, supplement to the main qualification event.