Fifa Instructor Offers To Coach Beach Soccer Team

By Swalley Kenyi

FIFA beach soccer instructor and Oman national team tactician Talib Al Thanawi has offered to coach Uganda Sand Cranes in preparations for the Africa Nations Cup in Seychelles in April, 2015.

Thanawi concluded a week long coaching course for 22 Ugandan beach soccer coaches during which he held two training sessions with the national team players at Lido beach, Entebbe.

He acknowledged talent among Ugandan players and said that he would be happy to coach them before Uganda Beach Soccer Association (UBSA) chairman Deo Mutabazi revealed that the coach is coming back to handle the team.

Thanawi tipped, “Uganda has improved every year for the last three years I have been here. You have the potential to turn into giants in Africa but you have to work hard.”

“Make sure you have pitches of international standards to train and play on. FIFA is ready to help you. FIFA is ready to help you achieve that. It is up to FUFA and UBSA to follow it up. I will only be on your side,” Thanawi added at the graduation of the 22 coaches.

Thanawi has guided the Oman national beach soccer team to win the Asia beach soccer games and were at the World Cup in 2011.

CAF has invited Uganda to compete in the Africa Nations Cup finals which will also be a qualifier for the 2015 Beach Soccer World Cup in Portugal in September.

Uganda Sand Cranes had their first international encounter in a friendly match with Zanzibar in the coastal city early this month and UBSA chairman Deo Mutabazi has secured yet another trip for a week long build up in Mombasa and Malindi, Kenya in late January.

Mutabazi said that the trips will help the Sand Cranes players acclimatise on the finer playing sand which Uganda does not have at the beaches here.