The 1995 Beach Soccer World Championships was the first edition of the Beach Soccer World Championships, the most prestigious competition in international beach soccer contested by men's national teams until 2005, when the competition was then replaced by the second iteration of a world cup in beach soccer, the better known FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. It was organised by Brazilian sports agency Koch Tavares (one of the founding partners of Beach Soccer Worldwide). The tournament took place at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The hosts and heavy favourites Brazil won the tournament by beating the United States 8–1 in the final, coming from behind to claim their first world title. The tournament was immediately deemed a success, leading to the instant scheduling of a second World Cup the following year. The event was notable for featuring many high profile ex-association footballers, fuelling its popularity, including the likes of the Brazilians Zico, Júnior and Cláudio Adão, Italian 1982 World Cup winners Alessandro Altobelli and Claudio Gentile, Franco Causio, England's Gary Stevens and Luther Blissett, and brothers René and Willy van de Kerkhof of the Netherlands' 1978 World Cup runners-up squad. Background In 1994, Koch Tavares organised the first international beach soccer competition in Brazil, the Mundialito de beach soccer, a small 4-team event, in view of understanding how commercially successful beach soccer could be in the region. It featured Brazil, Argentina, Italy and the United States and was dubbed an "unofficial World Cup". The Mundialito was deemed a huge success, which gave Koch Tavares the incentive to organise a fully-fledged international competition. This conception materialised a year later in 1995 as this, the maiden Beach Soccer World Championships – a larger and longer eight team event compared to the Mundialito. Organisation Format The following format was decided upon by the organisers for the maiden edition of the championships: the eight participating nations competed in two groups of four teams in a round robin format. The top two teams progressed straight to the semi-finals from which point on the championship was played as a knock-out tournament until a winner was crowned with an additional match to determine third place. Miscellaneous The launch of the tournament took place from 12:30 onwards on January 18 at the Rio Internacional Hotel which involved the press and guests attending to see the opening presentation of the World Championships as well as explanations of