Summary
The Women's Euro Winners Cup (WEWC) is an annual continental beach soccer club competition contested between top-division European women's teams; the clubs that are their country's national league/cup champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) from countries all across Europe take part. Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the championship is viewed as beach soccer's rudimentary version of the UEFA Women's Champions League in its parent sport, association football.[1][2][3]
 Logo introduced in 2022. | |
| Organising body | BSWW |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2015[1] |
| Region | Europe (UEFA) |
| Number of teams | ~20 |
| Related competitions | Euro Winners Cup |
| Current champions |  Higicontrol Melilla (1st title) |
| Most successful club(s) | Eight clubs with 1 title each |
| Website | Beach Soccer Worldwide |
 2023 Women's Euro Winners Cup | |
Offering the strongest level of club competition in Europe, it is the most prestigious women's club beach soccer championship in Europe; the winners become continental champions.[4][5] The first edition took place in 2016, following the founding of the men's edition three years prior.[1] It takes place within the framework of the larger men's version of the tournament, happening during the same dates and location over the course of about a week.
Of the eight editions to date, each has been won by a different club; Spain have produced the most winning sides (four).
Organisation edit
As of 2022
Founding edit
Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) publicly announced the creation of the championship in December 2015, coming off the back of the multiple successful stagings of the men's edition since 2013. They cited the many women's national leagues/cups in Europe and their "strongest commitment" to begin ramping up the development of women's beach soccer as the reasons for its creation.[1]
Qualification edit
From each European nation, the champions of their highest level of women's beach soccer competition (be it a national league or knockout cup) qualify for the event.[6]
In countries where women's clubs exist but a national women's league/cup does not yet take place, clubs can contact BSWW to register themselves as that country's representative.[6]
If a national association wishes to enter additional clubs who are not an incumbent league champion, they can request for permission to do so from the organisers BSWW who will grant or reject the clubs a berth at the tournament depending on the total number of teams already registered.[6]
In 2020 and 2021, qualification was completely abandoned due to health concerns and travel constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic meaning many clubs could not compete. The competition was opened up to simply any club in Europe that was able and willing to participate; the competition format was also altered accordingly for these editions.[7][8][9]
Format edit
The tournament starts with the group stage. The clubs are split into groups (typically of four) and compete in a round robin format. At the end of the group stage, the top 16 clubs advance to the knockout stage. The teams then compete in single-elimination matches; the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and ending with the final. Consolation matches are also played to determine the final rankings involving the clubs knocked out of these rounds.
Results edit
| Year | Location | № of clubs | Final | Third place play-off | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winners | Result | Runners-up | Third place | Result | Fourth place | |||||
| 2016 |  Catania, Italy
|
12 | Grasshoppers 
|
5–4 |  BeachKick Berlin
|
Zvezda 
|
5–3 | Catanzaro
| ||
| 2017 |  Nazaré, Portugal
|
19 | Havana Shots Aargau
|
4–3 (a.e.t.) |  Portsmouth
|
Higicontrol Melilla
|
4–3 | Zvezda
| ||
| 2018 | Nazaré, Portugal
|
20 | Zvezda
|
2–0 | Portsmouth
|
San Javier
|
3–1 |  Amnéville
| ||
| 2019 | Nazaré, Portugal
|
20 | San Javier
|
3–3 (a.e.t.)[A] | Madrid CFF
|
Reims
|
9–3 | Lokrians
| ||
| 2020 | Nazaré, Portugal
|
5 | Mriya 2006 
|
[round-robin] | Cáceres
|
Zvezda
|
[round-robin] | Marseille BT
| ||
| 2021 | Nazaré, Portugal[10]
|
17 | Madrid CFF
|
6–3 | Zvezda
|
Bonaire Terrassa
|
5–5 (a.e.t.)[B] | Marseille BT
| ||
| 2022 | Nazaré, Portugal[11]
|
17 | Bonaire Terrassa
|
5–3 | San Javier
|
Marseille BT
|
3–2 | Higicontrol Melilla
| ||
| 2023 | Nazaré, Portugal[12]
|
20 | Higicontrol Melilla
|
3–1 |  FC10 Ladies
|
Bonaire Terrassa
|
6–1 | San Javier
| ||
| 2024 | Nazaré, Portugal[13]
|
|||||||||
- A. ^ San Javier won the penalty shootout 2–0.
- B. ^ Bonaire Terrassa won the penalty shootout 6–5.
- Round robin. ^ Indicates this edition was played as a round-robin tournament. There was no final or third place match.
Performance edit
Successful clubs edit
| Team | Winners | Runners-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zvezda
|
1 (2018) | 1 (2021) | 2 (2016, 2020) |
| San Javier
|
1 (2019) | 1 (2022) | 1 (2018) |
| Madrid CFF
|
1 (2021) | 1 (2019) | – |
| Bonaire Terrassa
|
1 (2022) | – | 2 (2021, 2023) |
| Higicontrol Melilla
|
1 (2023) | – | 1 (2017) |
| Mriya 2006
|
1 (2020) | – | – |
| Havana Shots Aargau
|
1 (2017) | – | – |
| Grasshoppers
|
1 (2016) | – | – |
| Portsmouth
|
– | 2 (2017, 2018) | – |
| FC10 Ladies
|
– | 1 (2023) | – |
| Cáceres
|
– | 1 (2020) | – |
| BeachKick Berlin
|
– | 1 (2016) | – |
| Marseille BT
|
– | – | 1 (2022) |
| Reims
|
– | – | 1 (2019) |
Successful nations edit
| Nation | Winners | Runners-up | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain
|
4 | 3 | 4 |
 Switzerland
|
2 | 0 | 0 |
| Russia
|
1 | 1 | 2 |
| Ukraine
|
1 | 0 | 0 |
| England
|
0 | 2 | 0 |
| Poland
|
0 | 1 | 0 |
| Germany
|
0 | 1 | 0 |
| France
|
0 | 0 | 2 |
Awards edit
| Year | Top goalscorer(s) | Gls | Best player | Best goalkeeper | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Marina Fedorova ( Zvezda)
|
18 | Rebecca Gabriel ( BeachKick Berlin)
|
Susanne Shutz ( Grasshoppers)
|
[1] |
| 2017 | Glafira Bazhanova ( Neva)
|
13 | Sarah Kempson ( Portsmouth)
|
Deborah Kehrli ( Havana Shots Aargau)
|
[2] |
| 2018 | Mélissa Gomes ( Amnéville)
|
14 | Molly Clark ( Portsmouth)
|
Viktoriia Silina ( Zvezda)
|
[3] |
| 2019 | Mélissa Gomes ( Reims)
|
14 | Carolina González ( San Javier)
|
 Phallon Tullis-Joyce ( Reims)
|
[4] |
| 2020 |  Anaëlle Wiard ( Newteam Brussels)
|
6 | María Herrero ( Cáceres)
|
Anna Akylbaeva ( Zvezda)
|
[5] |
| 2021 | Alba Mellado ( Madrid)
|
14 | Anna Cherniakova ( Zvezda)
|
Anna Akylbaeva ( Zvezda)
|
[6] |
| 2022 | Mélissa Gomes ( Marseille BT)
|
9 | Cristina Gonzalez ( Bonaire Terrassa)
|
Laia García ( San Javier)
|
[7] |
| 2023 |  Edna Imade ( Cáceres)
|
11 |  Adriele Rocha ( Higicontrol Melilla)
|
Laura Gallego ( Higicontrol Melilla)
|
[8] |
Appearances & performance timeline edit
The following is an appearance and performance timeline of the countries who have been represented by clubs at the Women's Euro Winners Cup. It shows which countries were represented at each edition and by how many clubs. The colour of the cells indicates the furthest any of that country's clubs progressed in the competition in that edition, corresponding to the key below.
18 members of UEFA have been represented by at least one club in at least one edition to date.
- Key
| Champions | Group stage | |||
| Runners-up | No. of clubs entered | |||
| Third place | × | Did not enter a club | ||
| Fourth Place | • | Banned from entering | ||
| Quarter-finals[a] | Host country | |||
| Round of 16[b] | — | |||
- a. Not used in 2020–21.
- b. Not used in 2016–17, 20–22.
- Timeline
Years Country
|
2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium |
× | × | × | × | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| England |
1 | 1 | 1 | × | × | × | × | × | 3 |
 Estonia |
1 | × | 1 | 1 | × | × | × | × | 3 |
 Finland |
× | × | × | × | × | × | 1 | × | 1 |
| France |
× | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| Germany |
1 | 1 | 1 | × | × | × | 1 | 1 | 5 |
 Gibraltar |
× | × | × | × | × | × | 1 | × | 1 |
 Greece |
× | 1 | × | × | × | × | × | × | 1 |
 Hungary |
× | 1 | × | × | × | × | × | × | 1 |
| Italy |
3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | × | 1 | × | × | 11 |
 Netherlands |
2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | × | × | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| Poland |
1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | × | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Portugal |
× | 1 | 1 | 1 | × | 2 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| Russia |
1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | • | • | 7 |
| Spain |
1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 35 |
 Sweden |
× | 1 | 1 | 1 | × | × | × | × | 3 |
| Switzerland |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | × | × | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Ukraine |
× | × | × | × | 1 | 2 | × | × | 3 |
| Total teams | 12 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 17 | 20 | 130 |
| Total countries | 9 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 8 | – |
See also edit
- Euro Winners Cup (men's edition)
References edit
- ^ a b c d "Euro Winners Cup 2016 to feature Women's competition". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
- ^ "Beachsoccerteam VIOD klaar voor Champions League avontuur" (in Dutch). nieuwedockumercourant.nl. 25 May 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- ^ "Euro Winners Cup (Champions League) Havana Shots Aargau Damen" (in German). funders.ch. 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- ^ "The biggest Euro Winners Cup ever!". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
- ^ "Women's Euro Winners Cup 2017". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
- ^ a b c "Euro Winners Cup 2017 to feature preliminary round". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- ^ The 2020 beach soccer season to begin in August. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- ^ Teams announced for 2020 Euro Winners Cup. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 5 September 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- ^ 2021 Calendar Launch. Beach Soccer Worldwide (video). 13 April 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
- ^ Euro Winners Cup 2021 teams confirmed. Beach Soccer Worldwide. 6 July 2021.
- ^ "Euro Winners Cup to return to Nazaré in 2022". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 24 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ^ "The Euro Winners will return to Nazaré in 2023". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- ^ "The Euro Winners will return to Nazaré in 2024". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 21 December 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
External links edit
- Beach Soccer Worldwide, official website
- Euro Winners Cup, at Beach Soccer Russia (in Russian)