2017 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship
The 2017 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship was a beach soccer tournament which took place in Nassau from 20 to 26 February 2017. This was the second time that the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship was held in the Bahamas. All matches were played at the Malcolm Beach Soccer Facility.
The tournament aimed to crown the best beach soccer nation on the continent and also served as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifier for teams from North, Central America and Caribbean which are members of CONCACAF, where the top two teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup also to be held in the Bahamas.
In a shock turn of events, the considerably inexperienced Panama thwarted all four of the nations who have dominated the tournament historically to surprisingly claim their first title. Panama's group stage victory all but condemned 2015 runners up Costa Rica to their earliest ever exit, their defeat of two-time winners, the United States, in the quarter-finals also ensured the Americans' most premature departure. They then defeated former World Cup semi-finalists El Salvador in the semi-finals and three time and defending champions Mexico in the final.
As the finalists, Panama and Mexico qualified for the World Cup, the former for the first time, the latter for the fifth time.
This was a groundbreaking CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship; it marked only the second time in the seven championships to date that the quartet of Costa Rica, El Salvador, the United States and Mexico did not all finish together in some combination in first through fourth place.
Participating teams and draw
The following 16 teams entered the tournament.;North American Zone
;Central American Zone
;Caribbean Zone
- Bahamas has already qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup as hosts.
- Guadeloupe is not a FIFA member and thus ineligible to qualify for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
- Should Bahamas and/or Guadeloupe advance to the final, the next eligible highest-placed team would qualify for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
- On 28 October 2016, FIFA suspended the National Football Federation of Guatemala for political interference by the Government of Guatemala. Until the suspension is lifted, Guatemalan teams are not permitted to participate in international competitions. CONCACAF had set the deadline of 16 December 2016 for the suspension to be lifted, otherwise by rule, Guatemala would be disqualified from the 2017 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, and any replacement team or revision to the tournament format would be discussed once the deadline had passed. On 23 December, CONCACAF announced that Barbados would take the place of Guatemala.
Pot [|1] | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
;Notes
- The draw started by selecting from a separate pot, which contained the five teams with the same exact ranking. These teams were drawn and placed into Pots 3 and 4 respectively to complete the distribution of the teams into those Pots.
- Guatemala were initially part of the draw, but were replaced by Barbados afterwards.
Group stage
All times are local, EST.
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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Placement stage (9th–16th place)
Bracket (9th–12th place)
Bracket (13th–16th place)
13th place first round
9th place first round
13th place second round
9th place second round
15th place match
13th place match
11th place match
9th place match
Knockout stage
The quarter-final matchups were decided by a draw, with the group winners matched up with the group runners-up.Bracket (1st–4th place)
Bracket (5th–8th place)
Quarter-finals
5th place semi-finals
Semi-finals
The winners qualified for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.7th place match
5th place match
3rd place match
Final
Awards
Winners
Individual awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.Top goalscorers
;12 goals- Ramón Maldonado
- Marlon Meza
- Lesly St. Fleur
- Alessandro Canale
- Jose Ruiz
- Ruben Batres
- Rohan Reid
- Sebastien Hell
- Billy Forbes
- César Saldivar
- Omarie Daniel
- Greivin Pacheco
- Kevon Woodley
- Deshawn Joseph
- Mark Jannovic
- Alfonso Maquensi
- Jamal Haynes
- Melvin Segovia
Final ranking
Rank | Team |
4 | |
5 | |
6 | |
7 | |
8 | |
9 | |
10 | |
11 | |
12 | |
13 | |
14 | |
15 | |
16 |
Qualified teams for FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
The following three teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, including Bahamas which qualified as hosts.Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in tournament1 only FIFA-sanctioned era |