The Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) is the premier competition in beach soccer contested between European men's national teams. Originally called the European Pro Beach Soccer League until 2004, the competition has been held annually since its establishment in 1998, making it not only the oldest beach soccer tournament in Europe but one of the oldest still in existence in the world, only surpassed in longevity by the World Cup and Mundialito events. The EBSL was originally created to promote the newly founded sport in Europe in a competitive environment.
Organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), the teams of the league compete in two divisions; A, consisting of the league's 12 best nations and B, consisting of the other teams competing that year. A system of promotion and relegation exists between the two divisions.
The league is played in two phases; a regular season and a post-season. Teams play in stages of fixtures during the regular season, hoping to earn enough points for their division's league table to qualify for their respective post-season events; for Division A, the Superfinal, in which league title is then directly contested, and for Division B, the Promotion Final, in which promotion to A is then directly contested.
The competition takes place between May and September. The league's rounds of matches are staged in a series of locations across Europe in which multiple nations gather to play, having spread as west as Dublin, Ireland and as east as Baku, Azerbaijan. Matches take place every few weeks over the course of a weekend, including Fridays. At most, Division A teams play 10 games a season and Division B nations, 7 games.
35 nations of Europe have competed since the initial 1998 season. Only four have featured in every season – France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The most successful nation is Portugal with eight titles (and are also current champions), followed closely by Spain and Russia with five titles each. Italy have two titles, whilst Germany, France, Switzerland and Ukraine have one title each.
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