Football: Beach Soccer World Cup |08 February 2024
The Seychelles beach soccer national team (Photo: Contributed)
Seychelles to feature in Dubai pre-World Cup events
World football governing body – Fifa – has invited the Seychelles national team to the Dubai pre-Beach Soccer World Cup events taking place over the coming days.
This is because Seychelles will host the 13th Beach Soccer World Cup in May next year and the Fédération internationale de Football Association (Fifa) wants to give the Seychellois players and management a taste of the arrangement and atmosphere that reigns at such an event, giving them an indication of the type and level of competition to expect in 2025.
These pre-World Cup events will see Seychelles play a series of friendly matches against teams who will be taking part in the Dubai tournament, clubs hold training sessions, watch the opening ceremony as well as a few matches on the first day of the competition.
Dubai will host the 12th Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup from February 15 to 25. This edition of the competition was originally scheduled to take place in November 2023 but was rebranded Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup UAE 2024 Dubai to give the organisers more time to prepare for the event. Consequently, its original 2023 branding was dropped, and it was subsequently referred to as the 2024 edition.
The Seychelles delegation consisting of 18 players and six officials leave for Dubai on Friday February 9 and return on February 16, after watching the opening ceremony and competitive matches scheduled on the first day.
Apart from some incidental expenses to be paid by the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF), all major costs including airfares, local transportation, board and lodgingwill be borne by Fifa.
During their stay in Dubai, the Seychelles beach soccer national team will play high level test matches against Senegal, the United Arab Emirates’ B team and join the national team of Tahiti in a joint training session. They will also play a friendly match against the Athletic Football Club Academy.
In fact, the programme will start as soon as they arrive, with the match against Senegal scheduled for Saturday February 10 at 5pm at the Shabab Al Ahli Training Pitch.
They will meet the UAE B team on Monday February 12 starting at 3.30pm at the Dubai Stadium.
The following day, Tuesday February 13, they will play their friendly match against Athletic Football Club Academy starting at 3pm at Shabab Al Ahli Training Pitch.
The joint training session with the national team of Tahiti will take place on Wednesday February 14 at 4 p.m. at the Shabab Al Ahli Training Pitch.
On Thursday February 15, apart from attending the official opening, the Seychelles delegation will have the opportunity to watch four live matches, USA vs Italy at3.30pm, Tahiti vs Argentina at 5pm, UAE vs Egypt at 7.30pm.and Spain vs Iran at 9pm.
The Dubai trip will kick off what is expected to be a very busy year for the Seychelles team leading up to Beach Soccer World Cup on home soil from May 1-15, 2025.
It is hoped that such exposure would give the Seychelles beach soccer national team much needed experience and knowledge which would be of great benefit in their preparation and training for the forthcoming Beach Soccer World Cup in 2025.
The team have been training intensively since the beginning of the year to prepare for the Dubai outing. In fact, they resumed training on January 3 following the New Year holiday, holding one session per day.
Training intensified over the past three weeks with two sessions daily.
The following is the Seychelles delegation leaving for Dubai:
Players: Aubrey Benoit, Mikael Jumaye, Dominic Bouchereau (captain}, Jerome Dingwall. Mike Balette, Ahmed Marie, Elvin Estico, Hansel Coeur De Lion, Herrod Prosper, Andy Javotte, Medrick Jean-Baptiste, Mikael Cadeau, Ronny Bamboche, Martin William, Stephane Lajoie, Terrence Amade, Ryan Servina, Sedrick Jean.
Officials: Philip Sinon (head of delegation), Georges Bibi (team manager), Herald Kowlessur (coach), Steve Hertel (assistant coach), Sam Moses (medical officer) and Damien Jean (kit manager).
Contributed