Four tickets for the World Cup are up for grabs
The draw for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup UAE 2023 European Qualifier Baku will take place today at 16.00h UTC. BeachSoccerTV.com will broadcast the draw live (watch it by clicking here), where the 20 participating nations will find out which road they have to take to qualify for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup UAE 2023.
Seven teams will start in the two groups (A and B) of the pre-qualifier to determine which three sides will join the 13 best BSWW-ranked team in the main qualifier. Norway and Lithuania, as top seeds because of their BSWW ranking position, will be automatically allocated to groups A and B respectively. The remaining teams, who have been allocated to the respective pots according to their BSWW ranking, will then be drawn in order, first to Group A and second to Group B. Malta, as the only team in Pot 3 will have the fourth position of group A or B drawn in a fourth pot.
Pot 1: Greece and Czechia
Pot 2: Denmark and Sweden
Pot 3: Malta
The two group leaders and the best runner-up, who will be calculated based on the standings counting only the matches between the top three placed teams of each group, will qualify to the main qualifier.
In the main qualifier, Azerbaijan will be automatically allocated to position A1 given their status of hosts. The remaining teams have been divided in four pots according to their BSWW ranking.
Pot 1: Portugal, Spain and Switzerland
Pot 2: Italy, Ukraine, Belarus and Germany
Pot 3: France, Turkiye, Poland and Moldova
Pot 4: Estonia, and the three teams coming from the pre-qualifier
As each teams is drawn, it will be allocated to the respective group in alphabetical order (A to D). The top two teams of each group will qualify to the knock-out stage and will be paired in the following way:
1st Group D x 2nd Group C
1st Group C x 2nd Group D
1st Group B x 2nd Group A
1st Group A x 2nd Group B
The winners of these matches will qualify to the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup UAE 2023. Given the pairings, the only restriction of the draw is that Ukraine and Belarus can’t be placed simultaneously in Groups A and B, or in Groups C and D.
Remember you can watch the draw live on BeachSoccerTV.com (click here)
