The Tribune

FIFA officials visited Nassau last week for working meetings with a team of more than three dozen leaders from the Bahamas Football Association, Tourism and hospitality as the country prepares to host the 2017 Beach Soccer World Cup, an event expected to draw thousands and air on 200 television stations around the world.

Sixteen teams from six regional confederations will compete in the two-week event set for next April. Among those expected to qualify are teams from Tahiti, Portugal and Brazil, each of whom has hosted a beach soccer World Cup with significant economic impact.

According to Jeffrey Beckles, General Manager of the Bahamas Sports Authority, hosting a FIFA event of this magnitude solidifies The Bahamas as a key player with genuine appeal and the ability to pull off major international sporting events.

“This event is another country-defining event,” Beckles said. “Earlier this year we hosted the second largest sports association in the world, the IAAF, for a highly successful series of events. Now we are preparing to host the world’s largest sporting association, FIFA. That’s the top two sporting event associations in the world. We have been able to demonstrate to the sports world that The Bahamas is able to take on events and do them well. We are able to benchmark ourselves from a global standpoint.”

Beckles commended the BFA for 30 years of work leading up to the announcement that the world tourney would be held in The Bahamas.

“I tip my hat to the BFA, to Anton Sealey, and all those people whose hard work has made this event possible,” he said.

BFA general secretary Fred Lunn said that Malcolm Park will be transformed into a user-friendly stadium with seating for up to 4,000 people for the event. “There will be a fan zone and a temporary bridge linking the stadium with parking for convenient access,” he added.

With the event just over a year away, Lunn said there are critical details to manage, and numerous committees with specific roles.

“This is the second time the FIFA officials have been here and the first of the intensive two-day working meetings,” said Lunn. “This meeting brought together visiting and local officials with the host hotel, Atlantis, with Tourism and others for site inspections and committee formation. One committee alone will be charged with managing 300-plus volunteers, and a part of that will be a sub-committee for medical which will be handled by someone with a medical background. To pull an event of this duration and stature off with eyes on you from 16 qualifying countries takes total teamwork and co-operation so we are really pleased that these meetings are coming together under the theme of One Vision.”

The next working meeting will be held in Zurich.