The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

LESS than 90 days remain until the official kickoff to the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and excitement throughout the country continues to build as another important milestone in the process was celebrated.

The Official Match Ball for the event was revealed to the public last Friday at Arawak Cay.

Several cabinet minsters, including Prime Minister Perry Christie, members of the men’s national team, executives of the Bahamas Football Association, delegates from CONCACAF and local stakeholders were on hand at the presentation.

The adidas Praia ball was presented in unique fashion, as a traditional Bahamian scull boat brought the ball to shore carried by national team striker Lesly St. Fleur.

“We know that this Official Match Ball reveal will heighten anticipation as the clock counts down to April 27. It is a beautiful ball and fans can expect to see it flying through the air with some spectacular tricks. This launch today also gives the millions of fans around the world a little taste of the beauty and culture of The Bahamas that they can expect if they join us for this exciting event.,” said President of the Bahamas Football Association Anton Sealy.

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 takes place April 27 – May 7. In preparation for the prestigious event, the BFA will host the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championships, February 20-27.

From the tournament, two additional CONCACAF teams will join the Bahamas as the three CONCACAF representatives at the World Cup.

The Bahamas recently hosted both the national teams of Switzerland and the Turks and Caicos to training sessions at the beach soccer practice facility at Arawak Cay. They completed a European tour against several elite nations last summer and recently returned from a series of friendly matches against Argentina and Mexico.

“They are going to make this nation proud,” Sealy said, “They have been working extremely hard under the watchul eyes of our coaches and executives of the BFA and will be ready to represent us well at these tournaments.”

Prime Minister Christie said his government threw full support behind the event once presented with the plan from FIFA and the BFA.

“When I met with FIFA, they gave me a view of what they wanted to do in the Bahamas. It was a very exciting set of propositions they put to us. They indicated that if we could make land available, they would make facilities available and accessible to the people of our islands,” he said, “Some 70 percent of the Bahamas’ economy is driven by tourism either directly or indirectly. I talked to PJ Patterson, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica and he indicated to me that Usain Bolt and a few singers bring more money into Jamiaca than the entire banana industry. So you can see they also export athletes. He embraced the idea of sports as an industry and it has paid trememndous dividends.”

The country’s advancements in beach soccer have been in line with the “Sports In Paradise” initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.

Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Obie Wilchcombe said: “The view was that we could become the sports capital of the Caribbean, that we could have sporting events where the region would come here, that people would come from all over the world to celebrate not only being in the Bahamas, but to celebrate participating in a sporting activity or coming to be a fan of a particular event. I want to congratulate this LOC for buying into the dream, for buying into the concept that we could be the sports capital of the Caribbean.I want to thank FIFA for beliving in the Bahamas, seeing the vision and beliving that we have the capacity for such an event.”

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr. Daniel Johnson said: “FIFA is the largest sporting organisation in the world and they have granted the Bahamas one of their signature events. We went out to FIFA and told them this is what we would like to do and they agreed. They have invested everything they could in partnering with us. What the world will see that week will be so incredible, we will all be so proud to be Bahamian.”

The construction of the $2.5 million facility, built on the site of the original complex at Malcolm Park West is near completion and will be capable of hosting over 3,000 patrons, equipped with a number of modern amenities.

According to an official press release issued by the Local Organising Comitte: “The adidas Praia stands out with a vibrant blue colour, like that of the turquoise oceans of The Bahamas. The specifically engineered low-weight, low- pressure, blue beach soccer ball contrasts in colour from the beautiful white Bahamian sand enhancing the display of the acrobatic skills typical to beach soccer.”