Cape Town soccer fans are in for a treat towards the end of the year when the inaugural Cape Town Peace Cup will take place in the Mother City.
The tournament which will feature four local and four international under-19 teams was officially announced at the Athlone Stadium.
The organizer of the tournament is the South African Peace (SAPC) in cooperation with the Nobel Peace Center (Oslo, Norway) and Cape Town.
International teams that will participate include, Boca Juniors (Argentina), Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany), Chelsea (England), and Stabek (Norway).
The local teams will comprise of Orlando Pirates, Santos, Ajax Cape Town, and Supersport United.
We are honoured to have this caliber of teams participating in this tournament,"said SAPC CEO Kjetil Siem.
The message of peace and harmony needs to be spread across the world through every possible medium, and football can play a huge part in ensuring this."
Draw for Cape Town Peace Cup held
The iconic Nobel Peace Center in the heart of Oslo was the venue for the draw for the Cape Town Peace Cup held 8th October 2009.
The draw was conducted by the CEO of the Nobel Peace Center, Bente Erichsen, and
Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Chief Mandla Mandela in the company of club
representatives, the City of Cape Town and many other dignitaries.
The eight under 19 teams competing in the tournament have been drawn into the
following groups:
GROUP A GROUP B
Ajax Cape Town SuperSport United
Santos Orlando Pirates
Stabaek Chelsea
Boca Juniors Eintracht Frankfurt
Fixtures for the above matches will be announced at a later stage. Speaking at the draw, Nobel Peace Center CEO, Bente Erichsen, expressed her joy at her organization being a key part of this event.
“Our focus at the Nobel Peace Center is respect, equality and brotherhood. Football can create fellowship that transcends beyond all boundaries and for us this is key,” explained Erichsen.
“For the City of Cape Town, the Peace Cup presents a further opportunity in the unification process. We know that sports play’s a major role in unifying countries and this is what we’d like to see at the end of the day when the South African team’s take on their international counterparts,” said Councillor Gerhard Ras of the City of Cape Town.
The two Cape Town clubs were represented at the draw by their chairmen. “I think that you can see that South African Football has finally arrived with us hosting the Nobel Peace Center and international teams all under one umbrella. We now need to deliver a world class tournament,” said John Comitis, Chairman of Ajax Cape Town. Comitis’ sentiments were echoed by Santos boss, Goolam Allie.
“It’s a culmination of the hard struggle of many years experienced by footballers in the Western Cape and it’s only fitting that we host a tournament of this magnitude,”
expressed Allie. The opening ceremony of the Cape Town Peace Cup will take place on 26 November 2009 with the King and Queen of Norway the guests of honour.
ENQUIRIES: Altaaf Kazi – +27 82 553 9595
altaaf@psl.co.za
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