Objective: This prospective cohort study investigated the characteristics of injury-risk situations during elite beach soccer using video-based football incident analysis [FIA].
Materials and Methods: Videotapes were prospectively collected from the Beach Soccer Tournament at the 4th Asian Beach Games. When a match was stopped because of the injury, the characteristics of the playing situation that caused the incident were collected using FIA and analyzed.
Results: From 27 matches with total of 993 minutes of play, 255 incidents were recorded. The rate of incidents was 4.7 per
team per match or equivalent to 1,541 incidents per 1,000 player-hours. Goalkeepers were more susceptible to injury than the other players. Most incidents in playing field, ball procession, team’s action, and referee’ decision occurred most in the defensive playing field (56.6%), during defensive ball procession (64.7%), resulting from dribbling and tackling (29.0%), and related to foul play (69.0%), respectively. Short pass was the most common form of team action before the incident (34.1%). The most common attack type at the time of incidents was the breakdown attack (42.4%). More incidents occurred involving the opponents unintentionally (95.0%). The lower leg was the most common body part involved in an incident (25.1%, p<0.05).
Conclusion: Beach soccer had high rates of the incidents, with unique match characteristics. Strategies to reduce incidents that lead to injury specific to beach soccer are needed.

Keywords: Beach soccer, Football, Incident, Soccer