The BSWW World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in beach soccer, calculated by the sport's developmental body, Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). The rankings are currently led by Brazil who have held the number one spot since March 2023.
The teams (both member nations of FIFA – the sport's governing body – and non-members) are ranked using a "points-per-event system", whereby the ranking of the team in the final standings of each event they participate in awards that team a certain number of points; the teams that accumulate the most points are ranked highest.
The rankings were introduced in February 2014 and were originally updated monthly; since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, new issues have been released at irregular intervals. To date, only three teams (Russia, Portugal and Brazil) have held the top position, of which Russia have spent the longest ranked first.
The ranking system is based upon that which is used to produce the FIFA World Rankings in its parent sport, association football, and since its establishment has been used for such purposes as seeding teams at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
Background
Since the 2000s, BSWW had been producing a European ranking; it was used to seed the teams in regional events. At each competition the teams played in, they earned points depending on their final position (an approach also adapted for use in the world ranking).
BSWW believed creating a world ranking would help teams, national associations and fans in understanding the "reality of beach soccer".
The ranking was first presented at the 2nd FIFA Beach Soccer Workshop in Dubai from 22 to 23 November 2013 to representatives of over 100 national associations who debated the composition of its materialisation.
In building the initial version of the ranking, BSWW took into account "many aspects and factors" used to create the FIFA World Rankings. Points earned from events over the previous five years (2009–13) were observed to include the outcomes of the three previous World Cups, therefore providing "an extensive results record and a solid criteria" for its basis; the results of over 1400 matches from ~100 events were integrated into the ranking. The weight of a team's points was reduced by 20% going back year on year.
The finalised version was subsequently released on 6 February 2014; for succeeding updates, the current calculation method immediately superseded the method use to create the initial ranking.
Current calculation method
Correct as of November 2022
Points distribution
The teams are ranked using a "points-per-event system"; in each event they participate, the teams will earn ranking points (providing the event is sanctioned by BSWW and/or FIFA) – the number of points they earn is determined by their placement in the final standings of that event. The higher in the standings the team finishes, the more points they will earn. Runners-up receive 25% less points than the champions; for most subsequent places, they receive 20% less points than the position above.
BSWW have divided the different types of competitions on the calendar into eight tiers of prestige for the purposes of the world ranking. Higher tier events that are deemed to be the most prestigious reward teams with more points than lower tier events.
The following table shows exactly how many points a team will earn per their final position at each type of event:
Points weighting & assessment periods
Only the total points earned from the above events over the last four years (counting back from the current month) go towards the team's ranking; points older than four years expire and do not count.
The four years in question are assessed as individual twelve month periods; the total points earned during each period are weighted differently to put an emphasis on the value of points earned more recently. 100% of a team's total points gained during the last twelve months count towards their ranking. However, from the three preceding twelve month periods, only a portion of their points earned during each count towards their ranking; the portion that counts gets smaller the further back in time the period in question is which are 75%, 50% and 25% of their original points totals respectively.
This is illustrated/summarised in the table below:
World number 1 teams
Ranking leaders
Timeline ofBSWW World Ranking leaders
Three teams have been ranked world number 1, namely Russia, Portugal and Brazil. The rank leaders have roughly coincided with the team that is reigning World Cup champions during that time.