The Ghana Beach Sports Association (GBSA) yesterday officially launched the media beach soccer cup 2009 at the Media Centre of the Ohene Djan Stadium.

And barring any glitches, the various media houses in the country will pit their strength against each other when they battle for honors next weekend, November 28 and 29, 2009, at the Labadi Beach Resort.

The chairman of GBSA Mr. Yaw Ampofo Ankrah revealed that his outfit settled on the media for the first edition, for a strategic reason, saying "We chose the media for the maiden edition so that we would be able to tell a better story of the new sport in our quest to grow it."

The Acting Chief Executive of the National Sports Council (NSC) Mr. Worlanyo Agra stated that the NSC has budgeted something for GBSA to send the sport to schools. He, however, expressed elation that the media is setting the ball rolling.

The sport, officially introduced in Leme, Brazil in 1992 is a five aside game played in 12 minutes per period, for three periods making a total of 36minutes in all with no offsides, and teams are rested for two minutes per period.

Unlike in soccer where there is a limited three-player substitution, beach soccer has unlimited five-player substitution done as the game progresses. The program, arranged by Global Media Alliance is being sponsored by Voltic Mineral Water, Zoomlion, Healthi Life, Stone Strong Lager, FedEx and Digital Innovation.