Australian beach soccer: Tracing paradoxical narratives

For many Australians, the beach is key to leisure and pleasure, an integral part of their culture, and a symbol of their national sporting identity. There is ample evidence across a history of iconic sporting competitions, including, for instance, the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Football, or soccer, is the world’s most popular game. It has a simplicity that allows it to be played almost anywhere, even on the beach. In a country where recreational and professional sporting activities thrived, the story of beach soccer is an anomaly. This chapter considers the sport’s rapid growth outside Australia and seeks to understand why the local version has not realised a greater presence on the beaches of a self-proclaimed sporting nation’s landscape.