Whether it’s at the FCF technical center in Paita, passing by Lifou or Ouvéa, beach soccer is starting to find an audience in New Caledonia. The early growth of the game around the country is just the beginning as beach soccer seems certain to have a good future on the “Caillou”.
FCF has been trying very hard since mid-April to launch beach soccer in a country predisposed to sand-based sports given the extensive number of beaches scattered throughout the country. Officially recognised by FIFA only a few years ago, the sport is booming thanks to the success of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup which made its debut in on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 2005.
Nine years later, this intense and stunning sport has come a long way at an international level and is now knocking on the doors of New Caledonia’s Francophone neighbours Tahiti as they prepare to host the next Beach Soccer World Cup.
With Tahiti’s Tiki Toa automatically qualifying as hosts, New Caledonia are now looking to join them with preparations well underway for the OFC Beach Soccer Championship, with victory there set to secure them passage to the Beach Soccer World Cup.
Head coach Felix Tagawa faces a huge challenge as he attempts to select a side capable of taking on the region’s best to qualify for the beach soccer finals.
“In April we began intensive work towards the goals of discovering the structure of this unique sport,” Felix Tagawa said.
“The FCF’s Beach Soccer Tour is the starting point of a development policy aimed at integrating this sport, which at the end of the day is completely new. The most important thing is to collaborate with clubs, especially New Caledonia’s top clubs, when selecting the national squad because beach soccer can, and has to, become a compliment of traditional football,” continued the JS Baco former striker.
From his side, head of diversified football for the Federal Council, Philippe Jiane said the country is starting from scratch which leaves them with everything to do in order to be successful.
“The potential is here and beach soccer will have a good future because in New Caledonia we can say that playing football on the sand is quite cultural,” the former Saint-Louis playmaker said. “We are satisfied with what we have done since April because we can see the progress already. We have to be ambitious even if we know where we have come from.”
As these two knowledgeable representatives of Les Cagous beach soccer know the path to future success will not be easy.
“It is vital to attend the 2013 Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers because this competition is a huge opportunity for Oceania’s countries, with everything that will follow it, to be able to improve and learn. This is the path to development, we have to be competitive and ambitious,” Jiane said.
For Tagawa the focus is now on the preparations that will need to be maintained up until August, including a lot of hard work on the special characteristics of the sport, whether it be technically or tactically.
“We have worked on everything because running and playing in the sand is totally different. We have been focused on the beach game and from now on we will concentrate on building a competitive spirit with the team that has been shortlisted. Beach soccer is an intense sport, and everything can change quickly with this game, therefore staying focused is very important.”
For more on New Caledonia football go to www.fedcalfoot.com

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