Foundation stone laying ceremony for beach football stadium |22 August 2014

Beach football makes another giant leap forward

Seychelles was only introduced to beach football almost a year ago and the sport is already making great strides towards future successes.

The latest development came with the laying of the foundation stone for the construction a beach football stadium.

The ceremony was hosted yesterday afternoon in the presence of President James Michel, who is also the patron of football here.

President Michel had the honour of laying the foundation stone for the stadium along with Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) chairman Elvis Chetty.

Also present at the ceremony were the Minister for Social Affairs, Community Development and Sports, Vincent Meriton; the Minister for Finance, Trade and Investment Pierre Laporte; the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Alain St Ange; the principal secretary for community development and sports Denis Rose; as well as members of the SFF executive committee, representatives of sponsors and partners of the SFF, among other guests.

In his address, Mr Chetty said that the building of the stadium shows the new dimension the SFF is taking by investing in other areas of football development.

“Beach football only started a year ago and construction of the stadium will seal the SFF’s commitment to the sport,” he said.

“Seychelles will host the first ever African Beach Football Championship in 2015 and along with the construction of this stadium, we are also working towards preparing a competitive national team to compete in the tournament,” he added.

Mr Chetty also thanked the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and the Seychelles government for their help with the project.
 
Seychelles' successful bid to organise this championship was announced by Caf following a meeting of its executive committee late in 2013.

On his part, Minister Meriton said: “We are witnessing another milestone in the country’s sports development with this historical event.”

He added that his ministry is now working in partnership with the SFF and the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Investment to find ways of raising the necessary funds to organise the African Championship next year.

“The development of beach football in Seychelles is also important to help nurture young talents and to also give more youths the opportunity to practice a new sport,” Minister Meriton added.

The construction of Seychelles’ first beach football stadium will cost in the region of R15-20 million and will take around 30-33 weeks to complete.

Construction of the stadium is being undertaken by Vijay Construction.  The beach soccer stadium is being built next to the Astroturf pitch at Roche Caïman.

According to Mr Chetty, the stadium will not be limited to host only beach football matches as he hopes other sports can also make use of it.

The African Beach Football Championship will take place from April 10-18, 2015 and will be contested by eight teams.

S. N.