Blatter likely to attend Beach Soccer World Cup in Dubai

Dubai: Fifa President Sepp Blatter has assured local organisers he will make every effort to attend next month's Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup in Dubai.

Given Dubai's long-standing record, the Fifa chief believes this edition of the competition will be a phenomenal success.

Senior officials of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup, including tournament director, Salah Tahlak, deputy tournament director, Dr Khalid Mohammad Al Zahed and director of communications, Ammar Al Yasin, last week travelled to the Fifa headquarters in Zurich for talks on the tournament.

Welcoming the delegation, the Fifa president said that he was confident that Dubai was an unequivocal location for the Beach Soccer World Cup.

"I have great expectations for the tournament. Dubai has a good track record for hosting major international events and the LOC team is doing an excellent job to ensure it is a great success," Blatter told the delegation.

Also attending the meeting were other senior officials from Fifa and Fifa Beach Soccer, including Joan Cusco, member of the Fifa futsal and beach soccer committee.

During the meeting Cusco expressed thanks to Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and patron of the tournament.

Also on the agenda at the Zurich meeting were the preparations for an official Fifa visit to Dubai in the next few days, when Cusco and his team will take a tour of the specially designed, temporary, 6,000- seat stadium.