The competition was organised by CONMEBOL; other beach soccer exhibition events held under the Copa América title took place during 1994–99, 2003 and 2012–14,[2] however this was the first edition to be officially organised by the governing body for South American football who also organise the other official Copa América events in association football and futsal.
The tournament was hosted by Brazil in the city of Santos between 13 and 18 December.[3]
The draw to split the ten teams into two groups of five took place on 26 November in Luque, Paraguay at the Auditorio de la Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol.[7]
The remaining eight teams were split into four pots of two based on their seeding, in order from the highest seeds placed in Pot 1, down to the lowest seeds placed in Pot 4. From each pot, one team was drawn into Group A and the other team was drawn into Group B.[8]
Each team earns three points for a win in regulation time, two points for a win in extra time, one point for a win in a penalty shoot-out, and no points for a defeat. The top team of each group, advance to the final. The teams finishing in second through fifth proceed to play in consolation matches against the teams finishing in the same position in the other group to determine their final rank.