Member Insights: Joan Cusco Carbo, VP And CEO of Beach Soccer Worldwide
November 26, 2019
With the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup well underway and the semi-finals and final taking place this weekend, it was a great time to interview Joan Cusco Carbo, VP and CEO of Beach Soccer Worldwide.
The Beach Soccer World Cup is taking place in Paraguay for the first time, so iSportconnect asked Joan how the event is going, what the sport has been developing in recent years and how they adapt as a sport.
So, how has the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup been going so far?
The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup always brings great, unforgettable moments, and so far it has been no different. With the best teams in the world competing, and the unique atmosphere of a World Cup, excitement and thrill were always guaranteed.
Paraguay is hosting a FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup for the first time, the first FIFA event in their history! This means that the evolution of the sport is reaching new frontiers. The APF have been doing a great job both on and off the pitch, and the growth they have brought to beach soccer has been rewarded with the possibility to host the biggest competition in the sport.
Every year, more and more national associations embrace beach soccer, realise its potential, and make it a part of their programme.
Where has the sport seen the best development in recent years?
Beach Soccer has not stopped growing for the past few years and in 2019 we have seen confirmation of that. We have had new teams coming to take part in competitions, and have taken another huge step forward of women’s beach soccer, with the inclusion of new national teams taking part at the international level. We have also had new events being born, with the World Winners Cup, a global club competition, ready to become bigger and bigger in the coming years. I would also not like to forget our role in the Olympic movement, either, as beach soccer has featured in the first ever ANOC World Beach Games, becoming one of the highlights of the games, and being one of the pillars of the second European Games, held this summer in Minsk
How do you continue to work on expanding Beach Soccer as a whole?
There is only one way to do it: working hand in hand with the national associations and the different confederations, so that we jointly built solid ground together. Every year, more and more national associations embrace beach soccer, realise its potential, and make it a part of their programme, which is the key not only for the international competitions to keep growing healthily, but also for the grassroots programs to successfully bring more athletes in.
Sponsorship and TV Rights distribution concepts are constantly changing and you need to keep up to date to be competitive in this pool and keep positioning yourself as an attractive sport for brands and media.
What are the areas you see as having the best potential for growing the sport?
The first thing that comes to my mind is the development of women’s beach soccer. 2019, as we promised, has seen an amazing improvement in this field, with both national teams and clubs competitions taking place in new areas of the world, to make this year the busiest one in the history of women’s beach soccer. This has to be seen as the confirmation of the potential women’s beach soccer possesses, we just need to work steadily to make this potential blossom into a solid structure of competitions
What are the main difficulties for Beach Soccer as a sport and how do you conquer them?
Like all sports, we need to keep exploring the income possibilities that support any kind of growth. Sponsorship and TV Rights distribution concepts are constantly changing and you need to keep up to date to be competitive in this pool and keep positioning yourself as an attractive sport for brands and media. Otherwise, without that projection, future gets harder and harder. Fortunately for us, beach soccer has always been an appealing sport through its uniqueness. We need to keep working to maintaining the unique presence, as it makes beach soccer so special and attractive to brands and media, and at the same time put all of our effort in to enlarge our fanbase at the same time as making our athletes base grow.
Finally, what have you been most pleased about this year and what are you most looking forward to in 2020?
I couldn’t highlight only one thing! It is the combination of new events, the strengthening of old relationships, the growth of the players and the teams, and the increasing interest from TV and media. The combination of those things showcases the real place the sport finds itself at and the projection it must follow. This is exactly the road we want to follow in the coming season, incorporating more and more people, more countries, more televisions and broadcasters.
