Tourney Name: | CONMEBOL South American Beach Soccer League |
Year: | 2022 |
Other Titles: | Liga Evolucion de Fútbol Playa 2022 |
Size: | 180px |
Country: | Argentina |
Country2: | Ecuador |
Dates: | Regular season: Finals: |
Num Teams: | 20 |
Confederations: | 1 |
Venues: | 3 |
Cities: | 3 |
Champion Other: | (4th title) (1st title) |
Matches: | 43 |
Goals: | 344 |
Prevseason: | 2019 |
Nextseason: | 2023 |
The 2022 CONMEBOL South American Beach Soccer League (officially, Liga Evolucion de Fútbol Playa (Beach Soccer Evolution League))[1] was the fourth edition of the South American Beach Soccer League, a continental league competition for South American men's national beach soccer teams. The competition returned for the first time since 2019, having been unable to take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in South America.
Organised by the governing body for South American football, CONMEBOL, as part of its Development Department's Evolution Program, all ten members of the continental confederation took part, with both senior and under 20s national teams participating in the league events.[1] [2]
The teams are first divided into two geographically based zones (North and South) to compete in a round robin tournament against other members of their own zone during the regular season; the points earned by both the senior and under 20s teams are combined. The winners of each zone then proceed to face each other in the finals to contest the title.[1] [2]
Brazil were the three-time defending champions and successfully retained the title once more, sharing it with Paraguay.
The league operated under the same format established for the inaugural season.[1] [2]
width=80 | Phase | Dates | Country | City | Event | Zone | |||
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Regular season | 6–10 April 2022[3] | South zone | bgcolor=#b4dced align=center width=25 | S | |||||
2–6 November 2022[4] | North zone | bgcolor=#ffdd96 align=center width=25 | N | ||||||
29–30 April 2023[5] | Finals | bgcolor=#ffdd96 align=center | N | bgcolor=#b4dced align=center | S |
The ten member nations of CONMEBOL entered two teams each: their respective senior and under 20s national teams. In total, 20 teams competed.[1]
For this season, CONMEBOL altered the existing composition of the two zones back to their original states.
The numbers in parentheses show the South American ranking of each team prior to the start of the season (rankings only apply to the senior teams).[6]
The south zone regular season event took place in the Argentinian city of Santa Fe. All matches were hosted on Playa Grande at the Costanera Oeste complex.[7] [8] It was organised in cooperation with the Argentine Football Association (AFA).[9] Paraguay won the event.[10]
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The north zone regular season event took place in the Ecuadorian town of La Libertad. All matches were hosted on Playa Cautivo (Captive beach) at a purpose built venue. It was organised in cooperation with the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF). Approximately US$300,000 was invested into the event.[4]
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The zone winners play each other for the league title;[7] their senior teams play each other over two legs, as do their under 20s representatives for a total of four matches comprising the finals. The winners are the nation which accumulates the most points from all four matches combined.[1]
The finals were organised to take place in Santa Fe, Argentina on 29 and 30 April 2023.[11] All matches were played on Playa Grande at the Costanera Oeste complex.[12]
Matches are listed as local time in Santa Fe, ART (UTC–3).
----Kick-off of the following match was delayed by 30 minutes due to inclement weather.[13]
Whilst Brazil lead the series after the first three matches of the finals, both teams were still in contention to win the title heading into the final match.[13] [14]
However, the strong winds which had delayed the start of the previous match had since intensified,[13] to almost 80kmph.[15] This resulted in the fourth and decisive match of the finals being declared unplayable. CONMEBOL opted not to reschedule but cancel the match entirely.[13] [14]
With the series unable to be resolved on the pitch, CONMEBOL made the decision to award the title of champions to both teams, thereby resulting in a shared title.[13] [14] [16]