Bali
Beach Soccer (BBS) was first
organized in February of 2005. The
BBS team consists of
Vata Matanu
Garcia,
Michael Giuliana, Roger Laluas and
Sigit Nuguroho.
Bali Beach Soccer’s first tournament
was accepted and truly enjoyed by
not only the players involved in the
tournament but for the spectators as
well.
Great entertainment was provided for
all to enjoy. With limited
sponsorship from surrounding local
businesses BBS was able to provide a
good venue for the tournament. Only
days following the completion of
BBS’s initial tournament we were
proposed with creating our second
International Tournament.
This tournament would be a fund
raiser for Isana Dewata Foundation
who support victims of the Bali
Bombings and their families. BBS was
able to secure a National Sponsor
and with their help was able to
produce a top level International
Tournament and raise money for a
great cause.
The venue was first class and
provided an exciting setting for our
teams to complete and our spectators
to enjoy. The fund raiser was a huge
success and plans were immediately
in the works for another tournament.
Since BBS’s inaugural tournament the
quality of play and the quality of
venue has increased dramatically and
we only expect it to get better. BBS
is constantly looking for ways to
improve and our support from local
media and local and international
spectators are great motivators.
We thank you for your continued
support and we look forward to
seeing you at our upcoming events.
History of Beach Soccer
Over the past decade, Beach Soccer
has journeyed from the beaches of
Brazil to the hearts of millions of
fans all over the globe.
The participation of internationally
renowned players such as flamboyant
Frenchman Eric Cantona, legendary
Spanish strikers Michel and Julio
Salinas and Brazilian samba stars
such as Romario, Junior and Zico has
helped to expand television coverage
to large audiences in over 170
countries worldwide, making Beach
Soccer one of the fastest growing
professional sports in the world and
converting it into a major showcase
for international commercial
opportunity.
Beach Soccer had been played
recreationally all over the world
for many years and in many different
formats but it wasn't until 1992
that the laws of the game were
envisioned and a pilot event staged
by the founding partners of BSWW in
Los Angeles.
The following summer, the first
professional beach soccer
competition was organized at Miami
Beach, with teams from the USA,
Brazil, Argentina and Italy taking
part in what would turn out to be an
historic event.
In April 1994 the first event to be
covered by network television
transmissions was held on the
Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro
and the city hosted the inaugural
Beach Soccer World Championship one
year later.
The competition was won by the host
nation, making Brazil the first ever
World Champions of Beach Soccer. The
success of the tournament saw
commercial interest begin to match
developments on the pitch and
growing demand for the sport around
the world gave rise to the Pro Beach
Soccer Tour in 1996.
The first Pro Beach Soccer Tour
included a total of 60 games in two
years across South America, Europe,
Asia and the USA, attracting major
names both on and off the pitch.
Interest generated by the tour in
Europe led to the creation of the
European Pro Beach Soccer League in
1998, providing a solid
infrastructure that would increase
the professionalism of the spectacle
on all levels.
The EPBSL, now known as the Euro BS
League, united promoters from across
the continent and satisfied the
demands of the media, sponsors and
fans.
Only four years on from its
creation, the successful first step
in the building of a legitimate
Worldwide Competition Structure for
the sport of Pro Beach Soccer had
been taken.
Behind the scenes key developments
were also taking place, with the
Beach Soccer Company relocating its
headquarters to Europe, firstly to
Monaco and then Barcelona, before
becoming Pro Beach Soccer, S.L. in
April 2000.
One year later they would join
forces with Octagon Koch Tavares,
who had continued to organise the
World Championships and events in
South America, to form a single
entity known as Beach Soccer
Worldwide (BSWW), with the aim of
unifying all major Pro Beach Soccer
tournaments in the world under the
same structure and providing sole
representation of the sport to major
sponsors, the media and FIFA.
The EPBSL was also flourishing, with
a nail-biting 2000 season decided in
the closing match of the final
tournament when Spain beat Portugal
in an intense encounter.
The Americas League also took shape,
with teams entered from North and
South America, whilst the Pro Beach
Soccer Tour extended its horizons to
the United Arab Emirates, Thailand,
Mexico, Greece, Japan, Australia and
the UK.
The next four years would see this
growth consolidated by further
progress both on and off the pitch,
with the EPBSL emerging as the
strongest Pro Beach Soccer
competition in the world.
By 2004, some seventeen nations had
entered teams, with this number
expected to rise to over twenty for
the Euro BS League in 2005,
contributing to vastly expanded
television coverage of the series
and unprecedented demand from
promoters in more than seventy
countries looking to stage events.
Such interest has allowed BSWW to
strike major sponsorship deals with
internationally renowned companies
including McDonalds, Coca-Cola and
MasterCard, who stepped up their
involvement in 2004 and are now
title sponsors of the Euro BS
League. Recognition has also come
from FIFA, who have cited BSWW as
the major entity behind the creation
and growth of Beach Soccer, forming
a highly promising partnership that
will see the first ever FIFA Beach
Soccer World Cup take place in
Brazil in May 2005.
Source: beachsoccer.com (2005)