The 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations brings together the best eight teams in Africa to compete for the title.
The 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations brings together eight teams around the continent to compete for the title.
Here are five things you need to know the 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations.
1. Duration and the host country
The 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations is a continental football event which would be hosted in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh.
The tournament is scheduled to hold from Saturday, December 8 till Friday, December 14 in Egypt.
This is the eight edition of the Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations which started in 2006 and was renamed from FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup CAF qualifier (CAF Beach Soccer Championship) in 2015.
2. Participating teams
Seven teams and the host country qualified to take part at the 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations.
Egypt (hosts) Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar, Senegal, Nigeria, Libya and Tanzania
Nigeria, Senegal and Egypt did not participate at in the qualification series for the tournament after their performance at the last edition.
3. Group stage
The 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations will have a total of 12 group stage matches played in the city of city of Sharm El Sheikh.
The eight teams that qualified for the tournament were spilt into two groups of four countries each with hosts Egypt and reigning champions Senegal the top seeds.
Winners of each group will be paired against the runners-up up in the semi-finals.
Winners in the semi-final will progress to the final, will losers will contest for third place.
While the third in group A will face fourth in group B and vice versa with the winners advancing to determine which team will finish fifth and sixth while the losers will play off to determine who finishes seventh or eighth.
Groups
Group A : Egypt, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar
Group B : Senegal, Nigeria, Libya and Tanzania
Matches
Group A
8 December 2018 Egypt v Morocco
9 December 2018 Ivory Coast v Madagascar
10 December 2018 Morocco v Ivory Coast
10 December 2018 Madagascar v Egypt
11 December 2018 Morocco v Madagascar
11 December 2018 Ivory Coast v Egypt
Group B
8 December 2018 Senegal v Nigeria
8 December 2018 Libya v Tanzania
9 December 2018 Nigeria v Libya
9 December 2018 Tanzania v Senegal
10 December 2018 Nigeria v Tanzania
11 December 2018 Libya v Senegal
Placement stage (5th–8th place)
5th place semi-finals 5th place
12 December 3rd Place Group A
13 December 4th Place Group B
Fifth place semi-finals
12 December 2018 3rd Place Group A v 4th Place Group B
12 December 2018 3rd Place Group B v 4th Place Group A
Seventh place match
13 December 2018 Loser LSF1 v Loser LSF2
Fifth place match
13 December 2018 Winner LSF1 v Winner LSF2
4. World Cup
The 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup will serve as a qualifying route to the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup for African teams.
The eight African countries at the tournament all have a chance of progressing to the competition scheduled to hold in Paraguay from Thursday, November 21 till Friday, December 1.
Only two teams from the continent will partake among the 16 countries on the world stage, the winners, runners-up will represent Africa on the world stage.
5. Past winners
Only three teams have won Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations which are Senegal, Madagascar and Nigeria.
Senegal have four titles, Nigeria has two, Madagascar has one with Ivory Coast finishing runners up twice and Cameroon runners up once.