FIFA Prez Blatter Pushes for Beach Soccer at Rio Games

Waltinho da Silva, 48, practices slacklining at Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday Aug. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is pushing for beach soccer to be included in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Speaking at the beach soccer World Cup on Thursday, Blatter said there already are proposals to put the sport on the Rio program but "the local organizing committee needs to take the initiative."

Blatter tells the ANSA news agency the event belongs in the Rio Games because it was born on Brazilian beaches.

Beach soccer could probably be inserted on the Olympic program as a discipline of soccer, not as a separate sport, meaning it would only need approval by the IOC's executive board ahead of the games.

Beach soccer is played five to a side with unlimited substitutions.

Written and reported by The Associated Press.