Beach Soccer to Maldives

FIFA will be holding a coaching and refereeing course in Male in July 2010. The aim is to promote and develop this game in Maldives, a country of many islands with beautiful sand beaches. 15 coaches and 15 young referees will be selected to participate in this course. With this initiative, FAM hopes to put Maldivian soccer in the world beach soccer map in the future.

Beach soccer is played on surface of sand, levelled, free of rocks, shells, and any other object that may offer risk of injury to the players. The field is 115 x 90 feet in dimension. Each team consists of four players and a goalkeeper with no off-sides. Unlimited substitutions allow for fresh legs at all times and keeps the game moving fluidly throughout all three 12-minute periods. A beach soccer game always has a winning team. In the event of a tie an overtime period is played, followed by penalty kicks if the tie remains. Beach soccer is indeed quite different in play and strategy than traditional soccer and offers the opportunity to develop unique skills away from the grass game. It is no wonder that top-flight professional teams the world over have begun to utilize sand pitches at their facilities for this very reason: playing beach soccer makes a better soccer player.
Read: http://www.beachsoccer.us/index.php/benifits-of-beach-soccer.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Beach_Soccer_World_Cup for more information.