New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS): The All India Football Federation and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have collaborated to conduct a three-day online introductory workshop for beach soccer.

Talib Hilal, Beach Soccer Instructor, AFC, is the instructor for the workshop whereas four coach educators -- Suhel Nair, Marcelino Pereira, Gavin Araujo & Shekhar Kerkar -- are attending the same.

The inaugural session of the workshop kicked on Tuesday and from the AFC, it was attended by Ali Targholizade, head of Beach Soccer and Futsal; Jacob Joseph Biggs, Sr. Development Officer, Futsal & Beach Soccer Development; Stacy Jansen, Secretary, Beach Soccer & Futsal Development; and Abdul Aziz Kifah, Development Administrator, Futsal & Beach Soccer Development.

Araujo was a member of the Indian contingent that contested in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2007 qualifiers in Dubai as well as the first Asian Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia in the same year.

Savio Medeira, head of coach education, AIFF, said, "This workshop will be mainly conducted to prepare coach educators to conduct online introductory courses in the future."

"It (beach soccer) possesses a huge potential and with the introduction of the online courses, awareness about beach soccer will increase and this, in turn, will help the development process of this sport," he added.