The 2024 Euro Winners Cup was the twelfth edition of the Euro Winners Cup (EWC), an annual continental beach soccer tournament for men's top-division European clubs. The championship is widely viewed as beach soccer's rudimentary version of the better known UEFA Champions League in its parent sport, association football.

Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the tournament was held in Nazaré, Portugal, from 7 to 16 June.

Following a preliminary qualification round, the event began with a round robin group stage. At its conclusion, the best teams progressed to the knockout stage, a series of single elimination games to determine the winners, starting with the Round of 16 and ending with the final. Consolation matches were also played to determine other final rankings.

Kfar Qassem of Israel were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the quarterfinals, ultimately placing fifth. Braga of Portugal won the tournament, claiming their fourth European crown; they defeated Pisa of Italy in the final, condemning the Tuscans to a consecutive runners-up finish.

Teams

Qualification

Qualification for the competition is similar to the UEFA Champions League, whereby clubs qualify via their country’s national beach soccer league (being a country which is a member association of UEFA).

The exact number of clubs which qualify from each association depends on the perceived "strength" of their country’s league. BSWW determine the strength of each league by analysing the performance of all clubs in the EWC on a country-by-country basis over the previous five editions; a points-based ranking is produced from the data. From the most recent edition of their respective leagues, the best performing nations in the ranking are permitted to enter multiple top placing clubs (being their league champions and one or more runners-up), whilst the worst performing are allowed to enter just one club (being their league champions). This is similar in concept to that of the UEFA coefficient ranking.

Eligible clubs may choose not to, or are unable to participate. Thus, in reality, some countries fill their quota with clubs placed lower down in their league, don’t claim all their slots, sometimes fill none of their slots at all, and sometimes unclaimed slots are transferred to other associations at the discretion of BSWW.

Any and all clubs that do not qualify via their league placing, and/or are surplus to their countries' allocated quotas, are invited to enter the accompanying Euro Winners Challenge (preliminary round) to begin in the days prior to the competition proper. The Challenge is both a competition in its own right and acts as an alternative qualification route for this edition of the EWC; the semi-finals of the Challenge double as Round of 32 ties of the EWC and the Challenge final doubles as a Round of 16 tie of the EWC. The winners of the latter are crowned champions of the Challenge and are rewarded with a place in the quarter-finals of the EWC at which stage they become fully integrated with the clubs of the competition proper.

Entrants

56 clubs from 24 different nations enter the event – 36 enter straight into the group stage, 20 enter into the Euro Winners Challenge.

In accordance with sanctions imposed by FIFA and UEFA in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, clubs from Russia remain banned from entering this year.

Key: H: Host club \ TH: Title holders

Draw

The draw to split the 36 clubs into nine groups of four, and 20 clubs into five groups of four, for the group and preliminary stages respectively, took place on 16 May.

Euro Winners Challenge (preliminary round)

Group stage

All group winners, along with the best runners-up, progress to the knockout stage.

The other four runners-up progress to a play-off round to decide the final two knockout stage berths.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Play-off round

The two winners qualify for the knockout stage.

Knockout stage

The two finalists earn direct qualification for the 2025 Euro Winners Cup.

Bracket

Group stage

All group winners, along with the best runners-up, progress to the knockout stage.

The other four runners-up progress to a play-off round to decide the final two knockout stage berths.

All third-placed and fourth-placed teams recede to a set of consolation matches to determine final placements.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Placement matches

Matches took place on 12 June.

Knockout stage

Play-off round

The two winners qualify for the Round of 16.

Round of 16 onwards

Championship match details

Awards

The following individual awards were presented after the final.

Top goalscorers

Players with at least five goals are listed.

15 goals

• Chiky Ardil ( O Sótão)

14 goals

• Edson Hulk ( Pisa)

13 goals

• Francisco Casano ( Huelva)

12 goals

9 goals

8 goals

• Gabriele Gori ( Viareggio)

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

Source: BSWW

Final standings

See also

• 2024 Women's Euro Winners Cup
• 2023–24 UEFA Futsal Champions League

References

External links

• Euro Winners Cup 2024, at Beach Soccer Worldwide
• Euro Winners Challenge 2024 (preliminary round), at Beach Soccer Worldwide
• Euro Winners Cup 2024, at ZeroZero.pt (in Portuguese)