The Pinède Gould in Juan-les-Pins spent the weekend hosting the world's best footvolley players, as the Mondial FootVolley drew sixteen national teams to Antibes for three days of competition blending football and beach volleyball.
Now an established fixture on the Côte d'Azur's summer sporting calendar, the tournament pitted teams from Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Albania, Paraguay, Uruguay, the UK, the UAE and Israel against one another in a sport still relatively unknown outside its heartlands. Matches ran in the early evening to avoid the worst of the day's heat, with the sixteen teams split into four groups by draw at the tournament's opening ceremony.
Brazil arrived as defending champion, looking to fend off the chasing pack once more. Beyond the sport itself, organisers built a charitable dimension into the event, presenting a 10,000 euro cheque to an association chosen by the tournament's sponsor during the opening ceremony. The tournament closed Sunday with quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final itself, following two days of pool matches and All-Stars exhibition games alongside the main competition.