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SeeTignes

European Beach Soccer Championships Video, Tignes 2008

Eric Cantona invites you to beach soccer in Tignes.

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Beach Soccer is a diversification of “the world’s most popular game” that the Cantona brothers, Eric and Joel, imported to France in 1997. Watching the players on the field it soon becomes obvious that this is different to conventional football:

* The pitch is considerably smaller, 37m by 23m
* The ball is lighter and softer
* Each match is split into three twelve minute periods
* The teams are five-a-side with rolling subs
* The players wear no shoes or boots 
* All free kicks are direct with no walls allowed 
* England qualified!!

As Cantona says “The tactics are particular to the sport and the physical effort involved is huge. It is much harder to accelerate in the sand and the players need to make acrobatic movements at any time. A good beach player excels equally well with the ball at his feet as he does in the air – “Effective and spectacular at the same time.”