In support of Durban’s bid to host the 2011 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup, SuperSport will have extensive live coverage from the coastal city of next week’s Africa qualifier for the 2008 edition of the tournament in Marseilles in mid-July.
The African qualifier is the first of the five continental qualifiers, giving the two African teams that secure the berths in Marseilles more time to prepare for the annual global showcase.
The top eight teams in Africa have been confirmed for the six-day event, which gets under way at the New Beach stadium on Tuesday, March 25,headed by last year’s champions Nigeria, who beat Senegal in the thrilling final in Durban.
The Beach Eagles went on to star at the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, dumping the high flying Argentinean side 5-3 in their opening match and then sneaking past France and the UAE in penalty shoot-outs. Nigeria lost their quarterfinal to Uruguay.
Senegal finished their World Cup pool section at the top of their group, having beaten Uruguay, Italy and Japan, before falling in the quarterfinals 6-3 to the powerful French team 6-3.
South African fell tantalizingly short of qualifying last year, and with their local supporters rallying behind them at the purpose-built stadium at New Beach, they will be eyeing a berth in the finals, and with it the tickets to Marseilles in July.
The tournament begins with the group round-robin matches, which will take three days.
Friday, March 28 will be a rest day for the competing teams, with the semifinals taking place on Saturday, March 29, and the finals on Sunday, March 30.
Teams contesting the qualifier are Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
The television coverage of last year’s tournament in Durban drew praise from Fifa, with SuperSport’s broadcast being singled out by the controlling body of world football as “the best they had seen”.
Coverage of Saturday’s semifinals begins at
12h30 on
SuperSport 3, with Sunday’s third-place playoff also on
SuperSport 3 at
12h30 and the final on
SuperSport 5 at
14h00.
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