The 2023 Euro Beach Soccer League was the 26th edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), the annual, premier competition in European beach soccer featuring men's national teams. It was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW).

This season, the competing teams continued to take part in two divisions: the top tier (Division A) and the bottom tier (Division B). As planned last season, Division A was expanded from 12 to 16 teams this year (including one suspended member). Division B accommodated eight nations: those who did not gain promotion from last season and teams returning after an absence from competing in recent years.

Originally, regular season fixtures were scheduled for July in the midst of a busy European calendar (including the European Games in June and World Beach Games in August). However, the UEFA qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup were ultimately realised during these dates in July instead; the EBSL regular season was not rescheduled. Hence, this season, all teams entered straight into their division's respective post-season events; for Division A teams, the Superfinal, to compete to become the winners of the EBSL, and for Division B teams, the Promotion Final, to try to earn a spot in Division A in 2024. Both events took place in Alghero, Italy.

Azerbaijan and Greece finished as the bottom two teams in Division A and were therefore relegated to Division B for 2024, the former ending a seven-year run in the top tier, and the latter demoted immediately back to the second tier after being promoted last season. In Division B, Lithuania and the Czech Republic gained promotion; the former earned the right to play in Division A for the first time, and the latter the first time since 2007.

Switzerland were the defending champions but lost in the quarter-finals, finishing in fifth place, only the third time the defending champions failed to finish among the top four. The title was won by Italy, who won their third title (others 2005 and 2018) by defeating Spain in the final, condemning the latter to their third runners-up finish since their last title in 2006. Portugal finished outside the podium places for only the second time in the history of the competition, whilst Romania finished sixth, their best performance since 2012.

Division A Teams Of the 16 nations who earned Division A status at the end of last season, 13 entered into this season's top tier; of the outstanding three nations, one was suspended whilst two withdrew and were replaced, resulting in a total of 15 participating teams as follows:

(The numbers in parentheses show the European ranking of each team prior to the start of the season, out of 34 nations).

(1st) (2nd) (3rd) (4th) (5th) (6th) (replaced by (17th)) (7th) (8th)

(9th) (10th) (11th) (12th) (13th) (14th) (19th) (21st) (replaced by (23rd))

Notes: a: In accordance with sanctions imposed by FIFA and UEFA in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian national team is currently suspended from participating in the competition. b: Ukraine withdrew; the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine refused to sanction the Ukrainian national team's participation in the tournament in protest at the Belarus national team being allowed to compete, whom it believes should be barred from entering due the country's role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were replaced by Denmark, the next highest placed team from last season's Division B final standings who did not finish high enough to gain promotion (seventh place; Latvia finished sixth but have not entered the competition this season), thereby awarding them with promotion to Division A post factum in the capacity of a lucky loser. c: Kazakhstan withdrew; they were replaced by Romania, the next highest placed team from last season's Division B final standings who did not finish high enough to gain promotion (fifth place), thereby awarding them with promotion to Division A post factum in the capacity of a lucky loser. P: Promoted from Division B at the end of the 2022 season.

Superfinal Matches are listed as local time in Alghero, CEST (UTC+2) and are those scheduled; actual kick-off times may differ somewhat. Draw The draw to divide the teams into their respective groups took place on 30 August 2023.

Group stage Key: Advance to –Quarterfinals /9th–11th place play-offs /Relegation play-offs /(H) Hosts Group A Team1 (H)33000176+1192 32001187+1163 31002820–1234 30003717–100

Group B Team1 320012017+362 320011113–263 310021513+234 300121417–31

Group C Team1 321002211+1182 30021915–623 301021313024 30003813–50

Group D Team1 22000114+762 2100159–433 2000269–30

Relegation play-offs (12th–15th place) The teams finishing the group stage in fourth place, plus the worst performing third-placed team, retreat to the relegation play-offs, contested in a round-robin format.

The bottom two teams were relegated to Division B for the 2024 season. Key: Outcome –Relegated to 2024 Division B Team1 32001148+662 3101198+143 310021316–334 30012711–41

9th–11th place The three best third-placed teams from the group stage contest 9th through 11th place in a round-robin format. Team1 2200084+462 21001911–233 2000268–20

1st–8th place The winners and runners-up of the group stage progress to the knockout stage, a series of single elimination games to determine 1st through 8th place, starting with the quarter-finals and ending with the final. Per the outcomes of each round, the losers retreat to classification matches to determine their final ranking.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals 5th–8th place

1st–4th place

Play-offs 7th place play-off

5th place play-off

3rd place play-off

Final

Awards Winners trophy

Individual awards Top scorer(s) Noël Ott15 goalsBest player Marco Giordani Best goalkeeper Leandro Casapieri

Final standings TeamResult1 EBSL Champions (3rd title)2 Runners-up3 Third place4 5 6 7 89 1011121314 Relegated to 2024 Division B15

Top scorers The following table lists the top 10 scorers in Division A.

RankPlayerGoals1 Noël Ott 152 Marian Măciucă 133 Glenn Hodel 114 Miguel Pintado 105 Marco Giordani 9 Axel Damm7 Bê Martins 7 Dimitrios Mikelatos 9 José Oliver 6 Volkan Yeşilırmak Orkhan Mammadov Gharbi Aness Jérémy Bru Source

Division B Teams The following eight teams entered into Division B this season. Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovakia return after a one-season absence. No teams make their debut for the first time since 2015.

(The numbers in parentheses show the European ranking of each team prior to the start of the season, out of 34 nations).

(15th) (16th) (18th) (20th)

(22nd) (24th) (25th) (26th)

Promotion Final Matches are listed as local time in Alghero, CEST (UTC+2) and are those scheduled; actual kick-off times may differ somewhat.

The top two teams earn promotion to Division A for the 2024 season.

Draw No draw took place to allocate the teams into their respective groups. Instead, the teams were split based on the results of last season's Promotion Final standings.

Group stage Key: Advance to –Semifinals /5th–8th place play-offs Group A Team132010137+67232001178+963310021312+13430003521–160

Group B Team1330001810+89232001179+863310021113–23430003620–140

Play-offs 5th–8th place

Semi-finals

7th place match

5th place match

1st–4th place

Semi-finals

3rd place match

Final

Awards Winners trophyTop scorer(s)Best playerBest goalkeeper Henrik Salveson Aaron Clarke 9 goals Paulius Giedraitis Jan Bártl Source

Final standings TeamResult1 Promoted to 2024 EBSL Division A23 Remain in Division B4 5 678

Top scorers The following table lists the top 10 scorers in Division B.

RankPlayerGoals1 Henrik Salveson 9 Aaron Clarke3 Lukáš Trampota 84 Paulius Giedraitis 6 Mantas Makutunovičius Giorgi Diakvnishvili Reanu Grossett8 David Jalagania 5 Niklas Johagen Audrius Plytnikas Source

See also 2023 Women's Euro Beach Soccer League

References

External links Beach Soccer Worldwide, official website Division A Division B