2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Qualification (AFC) | |
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Tournament details | |
Host country | Oman |
Dates | 27 February – 4 March 2011 |
Teams | 11 (from 1 confederation) |
Venue(s) | 1 (in 1 host city) |
Final positions | |
Champions | Japan (2nd title) |
Runners-up | Oman |
Third place | Iran |
Fourth place | United Arab Emirates |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 23 |
Goals scored | 163 (7.09 per match) |
Top scorer(s) |
Takeshi Kawaharazuka Ishaq Al-Mas (8 goals) |
Best player | Yahya Al-Araimi |
The 2011 AFC Beach Soccer Championship was a continental beach soccer tournament, which took place from February 27 to March 4, 2011, in Muscat, Oman, seeing the tournament leave Dubai for the first time. Beach Soccer Worldwide and FIFA decided to move the location of the championship to the Al-Musannah Sports City complex in Muscat, due to the success of the 2010 Asian Beach Games held there.
The two finalists and the third place play-off winner earned qualification to represent Asia at the 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Ravenna, Italy being Japan, who won the championship for a second consecutive time, Oman who finished in second place, qualifying to the world cup for the first time and Iran who beat the United Arab Emirates in the third place play off, to qualify by finishing in third place for the fourth time.
A tournament record 11 teams, an increase of four teams following the seven that participated in the 2009 qualifiers confirmed their participation in the competition, with many newcomers, showing the ever growing popularity of the sport.
Originally, 15 teams were going to take part, which included Afghanistan, Palestine, Qatar and Yemen. However, the four countries pulled out of the tournament because of an undisclosed reason.
The draw to divide the eleven teams into the following three groups was conducted on 24 February 2011. The group stage commenced on 27 February 2011 and consisted of each nation playing each other once in a single round-robin format. To qualify for the quarter finals, a team must have finished in the top two of each group or have one of the two best records of the third placed group finishers.