UAE's beach soccer team land good World Cup draw

Dubai: The UAE will play in Group A in the Asian beach football qualifiers in Dubai from May 6 to 10. This was decided at the 2008 beach football World Cup qualifiers draw held in Marseille last week.

The UAE play against China and Uzbekistan in Group A, while Group B includes Iran, Japan and the Philippines. The qualifiers will be held at Jumeirah park, with the top three teams qualifying for the 2008 beach football World Cup finals in Marseille next July.

The UAE beach football team reached the World Cup finals for the first time last year in Brazil. Bakhit Sa'ad, the UAE skipper, said that the draw is balanced.

"It's good that the draw took mighty Iran away from our group. We know China and Uzbekistan are obscure for us. We hope we will repeat the success we achieved last year by reaching the finals for the second successive year in Marseille," said Sa'ad.

Prepared well

The FA national teams committee approved the preparation programme for the team. They play warm-up matches against Azerbaijan and Hungary before the start of the qualifiers next month.

Coach Marcelo Mendis said he will name his squad for the qualifiers in the coming days and the team will be prepared well by tough training sessions and warm-up matches.

The UAE will host the finals in 2009 in Dubai.