The 2013 AFC Beach Soccer Championship was a continental beach soccer tournament which took place from 22 to 26 January 2013, at a temporary stadium and adjacent pitch on the Katara Beach in Doha, Qatar. The stadium will have a capacity of 3,000 spectators.[1]
Sixteen teams have been confirmed to be taking part in the tournament, a record number, surpassing that of the eleven teams that competed in the 2011 qualifiers.[2] The first 13 participating teams are as follows:[3]
The organizers left three slots available and would announce who the three teams would be inside of two weeks after the draw. It was learned on 8 January 2013 that the Philippines have fielded a team to participate in the Asian qualifier.[4] It was also learned that Afghanistan and Thailand will also participate.[5] These newly-known entries have been indicated with a *.
Group stage
The draw to divide the teams into the following four groups was conducted on December 20, 2012, in Doha. The subsequent fixtures were determined on 10 January 2013.[3][6]
All kickoff times are listed as Qatar local time (UTC+3).
After the group stage had concluded, a draw was held at 21:30 to determine the match-ups for all 16 teams, including the group winners, based on where the teams place.
1 No qualifiers took place as the representatives were selected by the confederation. 2 CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held a joint championship for qualification. 3 Qualification was achieved through the Euro Beach Soccer League. (p) This indicates an additional play-off round, supplement to the main qualification event.