Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the tournament was held in Nazaré, Portugal, from 25 May till 3 June 2018, consisting of a preliminary qualifying round and the competition proper.[2]
Following the qualifying round, the competition proper began with a round-robin group stage. At its conclusion, the best teams progressed to the knockout stage, a series of single-elimination games to determine the winners, starting with the round of 16 and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.
Braga of Portugal were the defending champions[3] and successfully defended their title after beating Kristall of Russia on penalties in the final.[4]
Teams
A record 58 teams entered the championship; 26 qualified straight into the main round,[5] whilst 32 competed in the Nazaré Cup / preliminary round to attempt to qualify for the competition proper.[6]
26 different nations were represented.
Qualification
As per BSWW regulations, qualification for the 2018 EWC is achieved as follows:[7]
The reigning champions qualify automatically into the main round (Braga of Portugal).
The winners of all European national beach soccer leagues/championships are entitled to automatic qualification into the main round (but no league champion from Portugal qualified as this was Braga who had already qualified as current EWC champions).
The host club qualifies automatically to the main round (ACD Sótão), along with the winners and runners-up of its country's national league. (As a Portuguese club, the winners of its country's league was Braga who had already qualified. Therefore, this spot was rewarded to the team that finished third in the FPF Campeonato Nacional.)
Any other club who did not win their respective national league can enter the Nazaré Cup / preliminary round for a last attempt to qualify for the main round.
Entrants
For context, in February 2018, BSWW deemed the top four leagues in Europe to be (in no particular order) the Portuguese, Russian, Italian and Spanish leagues.[8]
Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach) is the host location of the competition for the second year running.
Nazaré
Location of Nazaré in Portugal.
Two venues were used in one host city: Nazaré and Leiria District.[9] Matches took place at Praia de Nazaré (Nazaré Beach) on one of two pitches. The main pitch, otherwise known as the Estádio do Viveiro (Viveiro Stadium), with a capacity of 1,600,[10] hosted 79 matches, including all main bracket ties in the knockout stage. Pitch 2, a purpose made pitch, located adjacent to the main stadium, hosted 48 matches.
Squads
Each club must submit a squad of a maximum of 12 players that includes a minimum of two goalkeepers. Players are to be assigned shirt numbers between 1 and 22 (the number 1 must be reserved for a goalkeeper). Three delegates must accompany the players, including at least one medical personnel. A maximum of three foreign players are allowed to be part of the squad.[7] This was later increased to four, however a maximum of three of these players are permitted to play in a match.[11]
Draws
The draws took place on May 9 at 12:00 local time in Nazaré, at the Biblioteca Municipal de Nazaré (Nazaré Public Library),[12] conducted by the Mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro, PFP Director Pedro Dias, BSWW Deputy Vice-President, Gabino Renales and BSWW Head of Competitions, Josep Ponset.[13]
Nazaré Cup (preliminary round)
The BSWW organising committee decided to split the 32 teams into eight groups of four, conducting the draw as follows:[14]
The top eight clubs in this order received the top eight seeds and were automatically assigned to the groups, with the 1st seed placed in position A1 through to the 8th seed allocated to H1.
Out of the remaining 24 clubs, again, from each country still represented, each club that finished highest in its country's national league were grouped together and ordered based upon the 2017 final ranking once more. These clubs in this order received the next top seeds available.
For the countries still represented by one or more clubs, this process repeated until every club was seeded.
The 24 teams were split into three pots, with the highest seeds placed into pot 1 down to the lowest seeds placed in pot 3.
Each pot consisted of eight teams.
One team from each pot was drawn into each of the groups, A through H, chronologically. The teams from pot 1 were assigned to position 2, those from pot 2, assigned to position 3 and those from pot 3, position 4.
Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group, except for Portuguese clubs due to the volume of teams from said country.
Pots
Auto-assigned clubs
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
Nacional (assigned to A1)
Artur Music (assigned to B1)
Kristall (assigned to C1)
Levante (assigned to D1)
Catania (assigned to E1)
BSMA (assigned to F1)
Boca Gdańsk (assigned to G1)
Siófoki Bányász SE (assigned to H1)
Casa Benfica de Loures
Delta Saratov
Playas de Mazarrón
Viareggio
Falfala Kfar Qassem
Wuppertaler SV
Portsmouth
Academy
Montpellier Hérault
APS Napoli Patron
Olimpia-Stels
Leixões
AIS Playas de San Javier
Atletico Licata
Dunkerque Littoral
Varzim
Benfica Caldas da Rainha
AD Buarcos
GDP Costa de Caparica
Salgueiros 08
GR Olival Basto
Chelas
BIR
São Domingos
Main round
The BSWW organising committee decided to split the 34 teams into seven groups of four and two groups of three. Two of the groups of four involve the eight qualifiers from the preliminary round. This meant the draw concerned determining just five of the seven groups of four, conducted as follows:[15]
Draw procedure
The clubs were seeded. ACD Sótão, as the club of the host city, were given the number 1 seed and assigned to position A1. Braga, as defending champions, were seeded 2nd and assigned to B1.
The next top five seeded clubs were automatically assigned to the groups, with the 3rd seed placed in position C1 through to the 7th seed allocated to G1.
GR Amigos Paz were then added into the ranking with the remaining teams who were then split into three pots, with the highest seeds placed into pot 1 down to the lowest seeds placed in pot 3 (along with four non-seeded teams as there was no representative club of their association in the last edition to calculate a seed from).
Pot 1 & 2 consisted of seven teams, whilst pot 3 contained just five teams.
From pots 1 and 2, one team from each was drawn into each of the groups, A through G. The teams from pot 1 were assigned to position 2 in that group and those from pot 2, assigned to position 3.
From pot 3, the teams were drawn along with another ball from an additional pot, pot 4. The seven balls in this fourth pot were marked with the group positions A4 through G4. The position drawn from pot 4, the club drawn from pot 3 was allocated to.
As there were just five pot 3 teams but seven position marked balls, this meant two group positions would not be picked from pot 4, therefore determining which two groups would consist of just three clubs and ensuring this was determined at random.
Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
Pots
Auto-assigned clubs
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
ACD Sótão (assigned to A1)
Braga (assigned to B1)
Sporting CP (assigned to C1)
Vybor (assigned to D1)
Lokomotiv Moscow (assigned to E1)
Melistar Melilla (assigned to F1)
Sambenedettese (assigned to G1)
GR Amigos Paz
Dinamo Batumi
KP Lódz
Alanya Belediyespor
Spartak Varna
BATE Borisov
Nõmme
Rostocker Robben
Vamos Braine le Château
Egmond
Kreiss
Marseille
AO Kefallinia
West Deva
Djoker Chisinau
Copenhagen (unseeded)
Igol Vilnius (unseeded)
Oslo (unseeded)
SK BO EU Teplice (unseeded)
Nazaré Cup (incl. preliminary round)
Nazaré Cup
Logo, often accompanied with the main 2018 EWC logo.
The preliminary round is open to all clubs who did not automatically qualify for the main round as domestic league champions.
Overview
Decision to make changes
The preliminary round has undergone considerable changes. In last season's EWC, five of the eight quarter-finalists and three of the four semifinalists qualified via this route; just three teams in the quarter-finals and one team in the semi-finals was an automatic qualifier / national league champion.[16]
To protect the competition's original purpose as a championship primarily for Europe's league champions, BSWW made changes ensuring that this year only two quarter-finalists and subsequently one semifinalist would be non-champion qualifiers from the preliminary round. Three semifinalists were guaranteed to be a national league champion.[16][7]
This was later revised so that only one team in the quarter-finals would be a qualifier, whilst the other seven would be guaranteed to be a league champion. A qualifier was no longer ensured of a semifinal spot.[17]
Format
This season, embedded within the wider scope of this edition of the Euro Winners Cup, an additional tournament will be taking place. It has been described as a "tournament within a tournament".[16] This supplementary event is known as the Nazaré Beach Soccer Cup (NBSC):-
The preliminary round of this year's EWC forms the first stage of the NBSC, taking place from 25–27 May:- [2][7]
The NBSC is open to all teams who did not automatically qualify for the Main Round.
The teams that enter will be split into groups of four, competing in a round robin format.
The eight group winners qualify for the Main Round of the EWC.
The eight qualifiers will be kept together in two groups of four.
Four clubs, the two top teams from each group, were originally to planned progress to the Round of 16 of the EWC. This was later reduced to just two clubs, the two group winners.[17]
The two teams will play each other in the Round of 16. This match will therefore also count as the final of the NBSC.
The winner of the NBSC will then be crowned, rewarded with a spot in the EWC quarter-finals.
Location of teams in the 2018 Euro Winners Cup main round. Groups key: A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I.
The Main Round commenced on 28 May and ended on 30 May.[2]
34 teams entered into the Main Round – 26 European domestic league champions (and select league runners-up) who qualify automatically plus eight qualifiers from the preliminary round,[2][7] competing in a round robin format.
Official practice sessions for the automatic qualifiers took place on 26 and 27 May.[7]
Nazaré Cup qualifiers draw:
The draw to split the eight Nazaré Cup qualifiers into two groups of four took place on 27 May, after the conclusion of the day's matches.[18]
All eight clubs were placed in one pot. As the clubs were drawn, they were alternately placed in Groups H and I. The draw was conducted by Leticia Villar of AIS Playas de San Javier Women and Aaron Clarke of Levante.[19]
The Main Round fixtures for Groups A–G were announced on 17 May. The matches for the Nazaré Cup qualifiers groups (H and I) were released on 27 May once the composition of said groups was confirmed.[20]
From Groups A–G of the Main Round, all seven groups winners and seven runners-up (originally, only five from seven runners-up) advance to the knockout stage (total of 14 clubs).[17]
Originally, from Groups H and I (Nazaré Cup qualifiers groups), the winners and runners-up from both groups were to advance to the knockout stage (a total of four clubs).[16] However the format was later revised; only the winners of each group (two clubs) now advance to play in the knockout stage.[17] These two clubs remain separate from the other 14 in the Round of 16 draw.
In the knockout stage, the clubs compete in single-elimination matches. Consolation matches are also played to determine the final rankings involving the clubs knocked out of each round of the knockout stage.
Round of 16 draw:
The Round of 16 draw was conducted on 30 May following the conclusion of the day's matches. The two qualifiers from the Nazaré Cup groups were automatically drawn against each other and allocated to the bottom of the bracket. The other 14 clubs were placed into two pots of seven. The group winners were placed in Pot 1 and the runners-up were placed in Pot 2.[21]
For each Round of 16 tie, a group winner from Pot 1 was drawn to play against a runner-up from Pot 2. However, clubs from the same group could not be drawn against each other. As each tie was drawn, they were allocated chronologically from top to bottom in the bracket below. The draw was conducted by the Mayor of Nazaré, Walter Chicharro and Anastasia Osinovskaya of WFC Zvezda.[21]
^West Deva had booked a return flight home to Romania which was due to take off before the scheduled match time (11:30), meaning the team was unable to attend the fixture. This meant they forfeited the match, awarding Melistar Mellila with a walkover."West Deva a terminat în primele zece la Euro Winners Cup 2018" (in Romanian). glasul-hd.ro. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
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