DUBAI, 5th October/WAM/ The draw for the FIFA Beach Soccer Confederations Cup resulted in the UAE national team competing in Group A, with Saudi Arabia, Spain and Brazil, while Group B included Iran, the United States and Japan, Paraguay.
Dubai will host on Kite Beach the eleventh edition of the Confederations Cup for beach soccer, from the first to the fifth of next November, with the participation of 8 continental champion teams, distributed into two groups.
The tournament draw ceremony was held today at the headquarters of the Dubai Sports Council, the organizer of the tournament in cooperation with the FIFA Beach Soccer Committee, with the participation of Patrick Kluivert, the former Dutch soccer star, and the international beach soccer referee, Ibrahim Al Mansouri.
The draw placed the UAE national team at the top of the first group as the host team, while Iran, the three-time champion, topped the second group.
The organizing committee announced that the championship matches will be held in a league system from one round, with the first and second place winners from each group qualifying to the semi-final stage, which is played by the knockout system, so that the winners qualify for the final match, and the losers compete for bronze medals in the match to determine the third and fourth places.
The ceremony was attended by Saeed Hareb, Secretary-General of the Dubai Sports Council, Mohammed Abdullah bin Hazam, Secretary-General of the Football Association, Nasser Aman Al Rahma, Assistant Secretary-General of the Dubai Sports Council, and Joan Cosco, Chairman of the FIFA Beach Soccer Executive Committee.
And the FIFA Beach Soccer Executive Committee revealed that an African team would not participate in the tournament due to the failure to determine a champion for the African continent in 2022, due to the delay in holding the African Nations Cup finals hosted by Mozambique until the end of this October.
The committee decided to invite the Saudi national team to participate in this tournament, given that it is one of the most promising teams in the continent and follows the same path as the UAE team.
For his part, Dutch star Patrick Kluivert expressed his happiness to participate in the Confederations Cup beach soccer draw ceremony, especially since it is held in Dubai, which he considers his favorite destination, which he has always attended to attend many major events and events, and every time he finds it more developed and higher value.
Saeed Hareb indicated that the Dubai Sports Council has worked hard to develop the tournament since its first edition in 2011, stressing that it has proven an integrated success and remarkable development year following year, thanks to the efforts of cooperation and integration with the Emirates Football Association, which made it one of the most important beach soccer tournaments. At the world level, the second following the World Cup.
For his part, Mohammed Abdullah bin Hazam confirmed that the tournament, since its first edition, witnessed the participation of the best teams in the world, and demonstrated its development in each version, which played a role in developing the level of the UAE team throughout those years.
He said, “We seek to achieve the best benefit for our team as a result of its participation in this tournament and to reach advanced stages in it among the large participating teams.”
While Joan Cusco confirmed that the tournament was born in the right place in Dubai, to become currently the second strongest beach soccer tournament following the World Cup.
At the conclusion of the draw ceremony, Saeed Hareb presented the English version of the book “My Story”, in which His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, “may God protect him”, narrate stories from the march of achievements and nation-building to international star Patrick Kluivert.
