Caf beach soccer tournament a huge success |21 April 2015

Beach soccer has made headlines during the past weeks and rightly so as spectators were treated to a festival of goals and skills as eight African nations battled for the top prize in the Caf Beach Soccer Championship.

“As a Seychellois I am very proud that Seychelles has been able to host such a big tournament,” said Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) president Suketu Patel after Sunday’s final won by Madagascar on penalties against outgoing three-time champions Senegal.

Mr Patel added that the competition has proven how the level of beach soccer has improved on the African continent, with all teams playing some great football.

The championship was played at the newly built National Beach Soccer Stadium which many have said is a very impressive facility and anyone who is yet to set foot in, should definitely take the opportunity to visit it. With its folded seats, electronic scoreboard, changing rooms, toilet facilities and of course fine sand on which to play, the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) should be commended for bringing such a facility to our shores and hopefully this will help Seychelles build a team capable of challenging for top honours in the future.

Joan Cusco, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) board member and vice-president of Beach Soccer Worldwide – the company that develops and runs beach soccer all around the world – said the fact that Seychelles now has a permanent beach soccer stadium, it means that there is a long-term commitment from the SFF towards the sport.

He added: “This stadium has brought a lot of quality to the tournament and the level of play has been very good. Madagascar has been phenomenal and surprised everyone, but they deserve it.”

Like in most tournaments, there were concerns by some coaches about the level of officiating at the Caf Beach Soccer Championship, but Mr Cusco has explained that as the sport is very young, the officials lack experience but Fifa is working hard to continue improving the level of officiating.

“The refereeing department at Fifa is working hard to organise seminars, workshops and training so that very soon Seychelles can also have good referees, who will be able to officiate at big tournaments,” added Mr Cusco.

For his part, SFF chairman Elvis Chetty expressed great gratitude towards the SFF staff, volunteers and other partners who have really made him proud with the success of this tournament.

On the national team’s performance he said: “We are still learning and I believe we will make a lot of progress and I have faith that we will go very far.”

While the Seychelles team have not had the best of tournaments, many have expressed satisfaction with the work Brazilian coach Bruno Mendes has been doing with the side and Mr Chetty has confirmed that the federation is working to keep him with the side.

“We are working on keeping Bruno here, but we are still working on how we will do it as it has to be within our budget as well. But we do feel that Bruno is the best person to develop beach soccer here,” added Mr Chetty.

S. N.