The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup – Europe qualifier is a beach soccer championship that takes place to determine the nations who will represent Europe at the upcoming edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. It is contested between the senior men's national teams of the members of UEFA. In 2006, FIFA made qualification to the World Cup mandatory (previously, nations were simply invited). Originally, the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) doubled as Europe's qualification tournament; in 2008, this separate championship was created as the European qualification route. FIFA currently allocate Europe five berths at the World Cup and hence the top five teams qualify to the World Cup finals.[see notes] Coinciding with the annual staging of the World Cup, the competition took place yearly until 2010; the World Cup then became biennial, and as its supplementary qualification event, the championship followed suit. Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) have organised the event since its inception. Europe's governing body for football, UEFA, only began involvement in 2019 – sending delegates and financial support. Unlike the World Cup qualifiers for UEFA in football, it is a knockout tournament with a champion crowned. Its large scale and competitiveness are often noted, making it viewed as a major title to win. Spain are the most successful team with four titles. However, Portugal and Russia have secured qualification to the World Cup on the most occasions (six). Founding In 2006, FIFA declared that for teams to enter to the World Cup, they now must qualify (previously, most teams entered by invitation). Qualification tournaments were subsequently established in all continental zones, except for Europe. For European teams, a qualification process had already been implemented for the previous handful of World Cups – the top placed teams of the most recent season of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) earned qualification to the upcoming edition of the World Cup. Thus, the EBSL continued to double as the qualifying route for European teams. In 2008, FIFA proclaimed that the next editions of the World Cup would take place in different countries. Until that point, all World Cups had been held in Brazil during summertime of the Southern Hemisphere, months after the conclusion of that year's EBSL season. That year, the World Cup was held in Marseille, France, and during a different time of the year – in July. The usual European qualification route, the EBSL, was not due