The teams are: Japan, Bahrain, China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Oman and Australia.

Dubai hosts the Asian-zone qualifier for the consecutive third year from November 7 to 11 to be followed by the World Cup from November 16 to 22.

China will lock horns against Oman in the opener of the qualifier which will is set to kick off at 3pm on Saturday at the purpose-built state-of-the-art World Cup venue along the beautiful Jumeirah Beach in Dubai.

Though organisers are not happy with hosting only seven teams from the 46 member federations of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) expressed enthusiasm about a bright future of the game.

However, Bahrain will start their campaign with a relatively easy encounter against less fancied Uzbekistan while top seeded Asian giants Japan will make their first appearance in a warm-up match against UAE. Debutants Australia will test their skills against experienced Iran.

The official appearance for Japan will be on the second day of the qualifier against Uzbekistan and the Bahrainis will play against host UAE. China will face Australia and Iran will play Oman.

On the final day of the preliminary round of the qualifier, the Eric Cantona-trained France will stretch their legs against Uzbekistan as Oman take on Australia, Iran entertain China and Japan meet Bahrain.

The semis will take place on November 10, and the two qualified sides (two finalists) will clash for the title on November 11.

According to the organisers, all matches are free and will be beamed across Asia and in the UAE on the Dubai Sports Channel. ESPN Star Sports will broadcast live in Asia and Fuji TV in Japan.

Meanwhile, the seven teams have been divided into two groups. One group of four teams and the other of three teams. During the group stage, to ensure all teams will play an equal number of matches, a friendly match has been scheduled for the resting team in the three-member group against UAE and France.

“We didn’t have the chance to play any competitive matches before we came here,” said Australian coach, Airton Andrioli. “Because we don’t play beach football competitively in Australia, what we did, we went all over Australia and selected players who we felt could adapt to beach football. After we finalised the team we went to a few camps in which we explained the rules. We didn’t have the chance to play any games so far.”

The Australian team has managed to organise two friendly matches, one against Nigeria this afternoon and the other on Wednesday against Bahrain, a team which shocked the Asian beach soccer community in 2006, when it won the Asian qualifier against Japan.

Bahrain shares a similar story with Australia, in 2006 it had pulled a team together just for the tournament.

Joan Cusco says, don’t rule out the Aussies; “The first time Bahrain built a team they came just like Australia, scouting players, making camps and building a team and they won the tournament in 2006.”

As a result, three players from that team went on to play for Bahrain’s national football team. “I have a good group of players here and have been working hard for the last few weeks and we’re confident that we can qualify,” Andrioli said, during a press
conference.

The Oman coach, Talib Al Thanawi, believes his team is under pressure to qualify, after the team won the beach soccer title at the Asian Beach Games, in Bali last year. However, this is the first time the team makes an appearance at a Beach Soccer world cup qualifier. Oman takes on China in the first qualifying round on Saturday.