The Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations (BSAFCON) is the beach soccer tournament of Africa, organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Launched in 2015, the winners of each edition qualifies for African nations to the upcoming FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Before 2015, African nations competed in separate African qualifying tournaments for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
Senegal is the most successful nation in this competition and in World Cup qualifications, having won five titles, including the latest one in 2024, and qualified nine out of eleven attempts; Nigeria follow close behind, with six qualifications.
The current champions are Senegal having defeated Mauritania in the 2024 Final, claiming their fifth title.
History In 2006, FIFA made it a requirement for all confederations to begin holding qualification tournaments to determine the best national team(s) in their region and hence those who would proceed to represent their continent in the upcoming World Cup (previously, nations were simply invited to play without having to earn their place). FIFA currently allocate Africa two berths at the World Cup and hence the top two teams (the winners and the runners-up) qualify to the World Cup finals.
Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) originally organized the competition under the title FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup CAF qualifier (also known informally as the CAF Beach Soccer Championship). Despite historically having minimal input (often only sending delegates), CAF became lead organizers in 2015, establishing a qualification phase to determine the eight nations to compete in the main tournament. On 6 August 2015, CAF renamed the competition as the "Beach Soccer Africa Cup Of Nations". CAF later announced that since three of its competitions were already held in odd-numbered years, the tournament would now be held in even-numbered years henceforth to desaturate the calendar, starting with 2016.
Results For all editions of this tournament, the top two teams qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifier #YearLocationFinalThird place play-offTeamsChampionsScoreRunners-upThird placeScoreFourth placeFIFA Beach Soccer World Cup CAF qualifier (CAF Beach Soccer Championship)12006details Durban, South Africa 5–3 8–3622007details Durban, South Africa6–52–0832008details Durban, South Africa12–66–3842009details Durban, South Africa7–46–4952011details Casablanca, Morocco7–44–4 (1–0 p.)962013details El Jadida, Morocco4–17–28
Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations #YearLocationFinalThird place play-offTeamsChampionsScoreRunners-upThird placeScoreFourth placeBeach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations12015details Roche Caiman, Seychelles1–1 (2–1 p.)9–1822016details Lagos, Nigeria8–44–1832018details Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt6–13–2842021details Saly, Senegal4–15–3752022details Vilankulo, Mozambique2–2 (6–5 p.)6–4862024details Hurghada, Egypt6–14–3872026details Senegal8
Medals (2015-2024)
Successful nations TeamTitlesRunners-upThird placeFourth placeTotal5 (2016, 2018, 2021*, 2022, 2024)1 (2015)– –61 (2015) – ––1 –2 (2016*, 2018)1 (2015)3 –1 (2022) 2 (2016, 2018*)1 (2024*)4 –1 (2021*) –1 (2022)2–1 (2024)––1 – –3 (2021, 2022, 2024)2 (2016, 2018)5
Awards By category
YearTop goalscorer(s)GlsBest playerBest goalkeeper 20069 Frédéric Aka Pascal Mbeyo 200714 Frédéric Aka Al Seyni Ndiaye 2008 Stephane Bobou12 Pape Koukpaki Kevin Enam 2009 Isiaka Olawale14 Isiaka Olawale Kevin Enam 2011 Babacar Fall Pape Koukpaki8 Isiaka Olawale Al Seyni Ndiaye 2013 Abu Azeez12 Nassim El Hadaoui Al Seyni Ndiaye 2015 Alexander Adjei15 Toky Randriamampandry Jhorialy Rafalimanana 2016 Babacar Fall11 Emeka Ogbonna Al Seyni Ndiaye 2018 Assouan Kablan10 Abu Azeez Al Seyni Ndiaye 2021 Nelson Manuel10 Nelson Manuel Al Seyni Ndiaye 2022 Mandione Diagne10 Mandione Diagne Al Seyni Ndiaye
By nationality RankTeamAwards1132936425261718191
Summary (2006-2022) RankTeamPartMWWEWPLGFGAGDPoints1104736137275148+1271132940242113237169+687731148221322226183+41714938200018163143+20605940161419180185–554662592212120111+9337312601555550198518601115989–30199515400116065–512102820152644–18711312200104876–286122710152246–244131310021419–53145161001563109–463152801072042–222161300031117–6017120002323–200182800081258–460
Points: W = 3 points / WE = 2 points / WP = 1 points / L = 0 points
Appearances & performance timeline The following is a performance timeline of the teams who have appeared in this tournament and how many appearances they each have made.
Additionally, eight teams have entered the qualification round at least once since its introduction in 2015 without having yet qualified for the finals, nor having participated in the tournament before 2015 when entry was automatic which are: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Sudan and Tunisia. A further team, DR Congo, qualified for the 2021 tournament but withdrew before the finals began. Legend
– Champions – Runners-up – Third place – Fourth place 5th–9th – Fifth to ninth place R1 – Round 1 (group stage) × – Did not enter ×× – Entered qualifying but withdrew • – Did not qualify •• – Qualified but withdrew q – Qualified for upcoming tournament – Hosts (qualify automatically) Apps – No. of appearances
Timeline Entry requirements: 2006–2013: Automatic entry for all teams. Since 2015: Eight teams qualify through the qualification round. 2006 (6) 2007 (8) 2008 (8) 2009 (9) 2011 (9) 2013 (8) 2015 (8) 2016 (8) 2018 (8) 2021 (7) 2022 (8) 2024 (8) Apps × × × × 6th × × × × × × • 1 1st R1 2nd × × × ×× × × × • • 3 × 6th R1 × × × × • × × × • 2 3rd 5th 4th 4th 3rd R1 6th 3rd 3rd 5th 2nd 4th 12 × × × × × R1 7th 7th × ×× • 5th 4 4th 3rd 3rd 2nd 7th 2nd 4th 6th 6th ×× • • 9 × × × R1 8th R1 ×× 8th 8th ×× ×× • 5 × × × × 4th R1 1st 5th 5th ×× R1 • 6 × × × × × × × × × × 6th 7th 2 • • • • • • • • • • • 2nd 1 × × × R1 × × • × × × × • 1 6th × × 5th 5th 3rd 5th 4th 4th 3rd 3rd 3rd 10 × R1 R1 6th × × • • • 2nd 4th 6th 6 2nd 1st R1 1st 2nd 4th 3rd 2nd 2nd × ×× • 10 × 2nd 1st 3rd 1st 1st 2nd 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 11 × × × × × × 8th × × 7th • • 2 5th 4th R1 R1 9th × • × ×× × × • 5 × × × × × × • • 7th 6th • 8th 3 × × × × × × • ×× • 4th 5th • 2
Performance of qualifiers at the World Cup
The following is a performance timeline of the CAF teams who appeared in the Beach Soccer World Cup since being sanctioned by FIFA in 2005.
Legend
– Champions – Runners-up – Third place – Fourth place – Hosts
QF – Quarter-finals R1 – Round 1 (group stage) q – Qualified for upcoming tournament Total – Total times qualified for World Cup
Team \ Years 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025 Total R1 R1 2 R1 R1 2 R1 1 R1 1 Q 1 R1 1 R1 QF R1 QF R1 R1 6 QF R1 QF R1 R1 QF QF R1 Q 10 Q 1 R1 1Total number of unique qualifiers 10
Notes
References
External links
Beach Soccer Worldwide, official website.