Skiers and boarders hitting the giant Grande Motte glacier summer ski area above Tignes, France, this July might want to check out the beach soccer tournament that will be taking place down below the perpetually frozen ice and snow on a surface of burning hot sand at 2100m.

Tignes has a close relationship with the world of soccer, as well as winter sports, being an altitude base for the French national squad. Now Manchester United's fomer footballing hero, Eric Cantona, together with his brother Joel, is bringing the Beach Soccer Pro Masters event to Tignes from 9th to 11th July

Pro Beach Soccer is a sport in its own right, bon in Brazil and exported worldwide via California, there have been 125 competitions over the past decade. The Cantona brothers first imported the sport in to France in 1997.

The players, including many famous international names from conventional soccer, play barefoot on the sand in teams of five. All kinds of acrobatics are allowed and in fact encouraged. Each match is divided in to three periods of 12 minutes with Brazilian dancers and DJs keeping the party atmosphere going between periods and matches.

Tignes summer skiing and boarding runs from 19th June to 5th September, with 20km of trails on a 750m vertical and a giant snowpark it is one of the world's largest ski and board areas open in the summer period, including conventional winter snow resorts in the southern hemisphere.

www.tignesreservation.net