The 2006 Euro Beach Soccer League, was the ninth edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), the premier beach soccer competition contested between European men's national teams, occurring annually since its establishment in 1998. The league was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) between June 2 and August 27, 2006, in eight different nations across Europe.
This season saw the introduction of a number of changes. This included having Division B nations compete first, attempting to qualify to play in Division A later in the season. Division A also underwent organisational rearrangements â each stage was now played as a knockout tournament involving all eight nations.
Italy entered the tournament as defending champions but lost to Spain in the Superfinal semi-finals. The Spanish proceeded to win the title, beating Portugal in the final to claim their fifth and most recent European crown to date, having last won in 2003, and the last time they reach the final until 2014.
The league also doubled as the qualification process for the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. The nations finishing in first, second, third and fourth place qualified, along with the winners of the last chance bracket.
The 2006 season featured many changes compared to the preceding years of 2002âÂÂ2005.
The Division B season began and ended before Division A began.
The division consisted of five rounds of fixtures known as stages, with one stage hosted in Austria, Greece, Russia, Poland and the Netherlands. Four teams took part in each stage, with each team scheduled to take part in two of the five stages. In every round of fixtures the teams played each other in a round robin format. The nation that earned the most points at the end of the stage was crowned stage winners.
At the end of the five stages, an interim league table was drawn up with the top teams advancing to the final round of Division B.
Ten teams took part in Division B, aiming to claim one of the four qualification spots into Division A later in the year.
The first stage took place in Linz, Austria.
The second stage took place in PoddÃÂbice, Poland.
The third stage took place in Athens, Greece.
â Result voided<sup>1</sup>
The fourth stage was due to take place in Anapa, Russia, between June 23 and 25, 2006, involving Russia, Ukraine, Austria and Germany, but was cancelled due to a dispute between the Russian national team and the Russian Football Union (RFU).
<div id="1"></div> The RFU claimed they had not given the Russian national team permission to play as official representatives of Russia during stage 3 in Athens. FIFA required that all teams participating in World Cup qualification tournaments must gain explicit permission of their nation's football association to represent their country in said competitions. Since the Russian national team did not gain permission from the RFU, the RFU filed the issue with FIFA in order to have the results of the games involving the Russian team in stage 3 annulled. Due to the ongoing dispute, BSWW were forced to cancel the fourth stage involving and to be hosted in Russia.
The complaints by the RFU to FIFA ultimately saw the results of the Russian team in stage 3 voided and the team was disqualified from competing any further in this year's EBSL.
The fifth stage took place in Scheveningen, the Netherlands.
Following the completion of the stages, the Division B league table was drawn up. The top eight teams qualified for the final round of Division B.
Due to the cancellation of one stage, and the results of another partially annulled, many of the nations played different numbers of total matches. Therefore, their final positions were based on points per game instead of total points.
The final round of Division B directly determined the four teams that would qualify to Division A. It took place in Sankt Pölten, Austria.
The tournament was staged as an unconventional double elimination tournament as explained below:
Following the completion of Division B, Division A commenced.
Division A consisted of four rounds of fixtures known as stages, with one stage hosted in each of the four nations which received automatic entry into the division. All eight teams took part in each stage.
Each stage was played as a straight knockout tournament. All eight teams contesting the stage title started in the quarter-finals, playing one match per round until the final when the winner of the stage was crowned. The losers of the quarter and semi-finals played in consolation matches to determine their final league placements.
Unlike in previous years, points earned by the participating teams for winning matches did not count towards league table. Instead, teams earned points for the league table based on their final placement in each stage from 12 points for winning the stage, down to 1 point for finishing last.
The breakdown of the distribution of points is shown in the table below:
The first stage of Division A took place in San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy.
The second stage of Division A took place in Tignes, France.
The third stage of Division A took place in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca, Spain.
The fourth and final stage of Division A took place in Portimão, Portugal.
Following the completion of all four stages, the final Division A table was drawn up. The top six nations qualified for the Superfinal.
The Superfinal took place at the Plages du Prado, Marseille, France.
For the first time, the Superfinal was not played as a knockout tournament. Instead, the Superfinal was organised as a multi-stage tournament; starting with a group stage, the six qualified nations were split into two groups of three, playing in a round robin format. The top two from each group advanced to the semi-finals from which point on the Superfinal was played as a knockout tournament until the winner of the 2006 EBSL was crowned, with an additional match to determine third place.
The semifinalists secured qualification to the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
<small>Key: Advance to the knockout stage</small>
European nations were granted five berths at the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. As Superfinal semifinalists, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Italy successfully claimed four of these spots. This meant one berth was yet to be filled. This berth was contested in a final round of the 2006 EBSL, independent from the normal proceedings of the league, known as the Last chance bracket. Played as a knockout tournament, parallel to the staging of the Superfinal, France won the event and claimed the final World Cup spot.