2021 AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup explained

Tourney Name:	AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup
Year:	2021
Other Titles:	ฟุตบอลชายหาดเอเชียนคัพ 2021
Country:	Thailand
Dates:	Cancelled
Num Teams:	16 (expected)
Confederations:	1
Prevseason:	2019
Nextseason:	2023

The 2021 AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup was originally to be the 10th edition (3rd official edition) of the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup (previously the AFC Beach Soccer Championship before rebranding from 2021),^[1] the premier beach soccer tournament contested by Asian men's national teams, organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The tournament would originally take place in Thailand.^{[2] [3]} It was originally scheduled to be played between 18–28 March 2021. On 10 November 2020, the AFC approved the proposal to move the tournament to between 28 April to 8 May 2021 to allow teams more time to prepare for the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4] However, the tournament was eventually cancelled, with the official announcement made by the AFC on 25 January 2021, and Thailand would instead host the next edition in 2023.^{[5] [6]}

A total of 16 teams were originally expected to participate.^[7] Japan were the defending champions.

Qualified teams for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The tournament would also have acted as the qualification tournament for Asian teams to the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Russia; the top three teams would have qualified.

On 21 April 2021, the AFC announced that they agreed to utilize a point system which ranks the performances of the continent’s top eight teams in the last three editions of the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup (2015, 2017, 2019). Based on the ranking of the point system, Japan, Oman and United Arab Emirates were nominated as the AFC representatives at the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.^[8]

Team	Qualified on	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup^1 only FIFA era (since 2005)
		10 (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)
		3 (2011, 2015, 2019)
		6 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2019)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

External links

• , the-AFC.com

Notes and References

1. Web site: AFC rebrands age group championships to AFC Asian Cups. AFC. 2 October 2020.
2. Web site: Abou Diab. Rami. 2020-06-24. The Lebanese Beach Soccer National Team prepare for the 2021 AFC Asian Championship in Thailand. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200626114906/https://www.falebanon.com/the-lebanese-beach-soccer-national-team-prepare-for-the-2021-afc-asian-championship-in-thailand/ . 26 June 2020 . 2020-06-24. FA Lebanon. en-US.
3. Web site: 2020-04-24. VFF - AFC postpones AFC Women's Futsal Championship 2020 and AFC U-20 Futsal Championship 2021. 2020-09-06. VFF. en-US.
4. Web site: AFC Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee approves new competition dates. AFC. 10 November 2020.
5. Web site: "الآسيوي" يبلغ الاتحاد اللبناني بمواعيد بطولاته الجديدة. Lebanese Football Association. 15 January 2021. 16 January 2021. ar.
6. Web site: Latest update on AFC Competitions in 2021. AFC. 25 January 2021.
7. Web site: AFC Beach Soccer Championship 2021 Competition Regulations. AFC. https://web.archive.org/web/20200716073652/https://www.the-afc.com/documents/afc-beach-soccer-championship-2021-competition-regulations. 16 July 2020. live.
8. Web site: Latest update on AFC representatives for upcoming FIFA competitions. AFC. 21 April 2021. 21 April 2021. en.