UAE beach team start tour on Egyptian shores

Dubai: The UAE national beach soccer team on Tuesday left for Egypt to participate in the first Arab beach soccer championships in Marsa Alam at Hurghada in the Red sea.

Dr Slayim Al Shamssi, UAE football association board member, headed the delegation to Egypt along with manager Badr Harib, coach Marcelo Mindez, fitness trainer Gilberto Costa, goalkeeper trainer Paolo Lieg and physio Hazim Al Ashawi. Players include Bakhit Sa'ad (skipper), Qambar Mohammad, Abbas Mussa, Haydar Abbas, Ali Hasan Qozad, Rami Abdullah, Mohammad Abbas, Ali Hasan Karim, Ebrahim Rajab, Mohammad Hamza, Ali Suliman, and Saeed Ali.

The UAE team leaves on July 8 after the Arab championship concludes and head to Italy for a seven day training camp in Milan before moving on to France to participate in the beach soccer World Cup in Marseille from July 17 to 24. It will be the second participation for the UAE in the World Cup finals after they clinched the Asian title for the second successive year last May in Dubai.

In November 2007 the UAE took part for the first time in the beach soccer World Cup finals held in Brazil.