Beach soccer World Cup 2025: fresh delivery delay
Despite upbeat talk that the 2025 Beach Soccer World Cup will be ready on time, reality appears to be catching up with the organisers
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As revealed by Sport News Africa last week, delays to the building work needed to stage the Beach Soccer World Cup, the first edition of the competition to be held in Africa, are worrying FIFA.
Read also: Will the Beach Soccer World Cup in Seychelles take place on time?
With no sign of any construction work, the questions were legitimate with less than three months to go until the opening ceremony. Yet in Victoria, the answer was simple: the containers holding the new stadium were due to leave the port of Dubai on 8 February. So no reason to worry, then, with the work scheduled to be finished in the third week of April and a test event just before the official start of the competition on 1 May.
Lack of money and sponsors
With a very tight schedule, there is no room for any delay. Yet the containers are still in the United Arab Emirates. At best, they will leave on 13 February, five days late, which creates a timing problem with the official completion date of the third week of April.
While wild rumours were circulating in Seychelles, the president of the football federation, Elvis Chetty, is expected to finally break his silence and speak in the coming days. Behind the scenes, many point to his inaction and his failure to bring in the sponsors he promised.
With a heavily reduced budget set by the state (around 200,000 euros), the event is short of funds, which FIFA does not wish to top up for the time being. Even so, the world governing body is hoping for a change in fortunes and, probably, for workers who will work very, very fast and for long hours to meet deadlines that look more and more unachievable by the day.