EFA’s E3M DILEMMA

Country’s football mother body unveils plans to establish beach soccer arena

MBABANE - Fear of missing out. Following Eswatini’s notable absence in the ongoing Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup Beach Soccer tournament in Durban, EFA is feeling the pressure. Eswatini Football Association (EFA) President Peter ‘Samora’ Simelane has announced plans to launch a beach soccer arena within a year or so, in order to start competing internationally.

Eswatini is a landlocked country with no beach, but beach football can only happen through the construction of a beach soccer arena. Uganda did construct such a facility back in 2018 and it cost up to US$200 000, which was about E3.7 million in yesterday’s exchange rate. “As an executive, we will map a plan to ensure that beach football gets played in Eswatini within the next year or two.

“We need beach football to develop strong players. We’re missing out on the ongoing tournament,” Simelane was quoted saying on Eswatini TV’s yesterday news bulletin.

Meanwhile, the COSAFA Beach Soccer Championship is being hosted in Durban, South Africa since March 17, where eight nations will compete for the regional title. For the 2024 edition, three invitational sides are making an appearance this year and they include Saudi Arabia. The other five nations that make up the eight participants are hosts South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi (debutants), as well as FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2025 hosts, Seychelles who are preparing to host Africa’s first-ever FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

Benefits

Beach soccer has countless benefits including developing the first touch of players. In beach, balls come at high speeds from all different areas of the pitch with little room for error so your first touch to control a ball will be tested more often.

Learning to deal with different situations and escaping them is an important lesson to be learnt that

translates to the outdoors as well.

The game on sand requires quick strikes on goal, meaning you have a split second to decide. These small windows of opportunities to score, develop great habits of hitting a ball first time in outdoor soccer as well.

Notably, in Lobamba, there is a beach surface for volleyball.