Dubai Beach Soccer event stays on target for November kick-off

Dubai: Joan Cusco, the President of Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), has said organisers have been in close contact with Dubai to host yet another successful edition of the 2020 Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup in November as scheduled.

BSWW, the organisers of the annual tournament since 2011, have been in constant touch with the local organising committee at Dubai Sports Council (DSC) to see due attention is paid to ensure the eight-team competition goes ahead as planned in early November. The tournament was scheduled to be held from November 3-7.

Cusco disclosed that the initial task of inviting some of the top teams from across the world for the competition on Jumeirah’s Kite Beach has already commenced. “We have been in close touch with top officials from the Dubai Sports Council, and we also have a few confirmations that we will relate over a period of time,” Cusco told Gulf News after being appointed as an Adviser for Sports on the influential United Nations’ body, UNAOC [United Nations Alliance of Civilisations].

Cusco was deemed the ideal candidate to lead the sporting strategy of UNAOC’s ‘One Humanity’ campaign due to his vast experience in spreading the word of togetherness, inclusion and respect through the medium of sport. His appointment came from UNAOC’s High Representative Miguel Angel Moratinos earlier this week.

“In days like these, the concept of ‘One Humanity’ is even more important and relevant to all of us. I have always believed that sport is a powerful platform to reach out to people across the globe and transmit the message that we are all together and we are all the same,” Cusco said.

“It is such a privilege for me to be appointed to such a prestigious body at such a stage in my life. I believe that it is only through unity that we can overcome the difficulties we encounter. Sport is a universal language that gets people together, and its voice is powerful and valuable to spread the message. We need to make the most of all the intrinsic values sport has to unite people. We have shown this aspect time and again through the various beach soccer competitions that we organise across the world.”

Cusco, whose creativity and result-oriented mentality were considered by UNAOC’s representatives, has already been working for weeks in reaching out to sports leaders and organisations from all over the world to encourage them to join the ‘One Humanity’ campaign, and many valuable agreements have been reached, as well as very positive feedback from top-level clubs, federations and institutions.

The ‘One Humanity’ campaign, of which some visual content has already been released on various BSWW platforms following the agreement signed last February, will continue to produce content while involving the most important agents in the world of sport to ensure all athletes, fans and sports personnel play their role in transmitting the message of ‘One Humanity, Many Cultures’.