24 May 2018– One of the country’s biggest development football youth tournaments will kick off in the Northern Cape from 9-17 June 2018 spanning across three Regions in this expansive Province.
The Solar u17 Youth Cup Northern Cape 2018 football tournament is being put together by the Province and is sponsored by Kathu Solar Park, Sishen Solar Facility and Loago Sports and Economic Developments Solutions in association with SAFA’s partners LaLiga.
The main aim of this ground-breaking tournament is for the Northern Cape to finally produce top players who will feature among top clubs in the country and ultimately make it into various national teams.
“This is a huge tournament whose aim is to make sure that the Northern Cape produces top quality players. This is the beginning of this journey and there is no better way to do so than having an all encompassing junior tournament,” said tournament organiser, Willy Motlogelwa.
The Solar u17 Youth Cup Northern Cape 2018 tournament kicks off on 9 June and runs until 17 June 2018. The opening games of 32 teams kick off in Pixley Ka Seme Region before moving to JTG Region for the last 8 while the semis and the finals will take place at Gaeleshewe Stadium in Kimberly.
The launch and draw for the tournament takes place on Thursday, 7 June 2018 in Kimberly.
Sishen Solar Facility Economic Development manager/analyst, Irfaan Petersen said the Solar Youth Cup is a perfect platform for collaboration between various role players in the Solar industry in the Northern Cape.
Petersen said despite football being the number one sport across the sprawling Province, the Northern Cape had no team within the top division but this should change with the concerted efforts being put together by various partners.
Kathu Solar project director, Mark Janick said the tournament will go a long way to disprove the notion that the Northern Cape was a ‘cricket-and-rugby-only-province’.
“This tournament is going to unearth massive talent in this province. We have seen in recent times that more and more youth are turning to playing football ahead of other codes, hence our partnership in sponsoring this project,” said Janick.
He said they had also discovered that football takes away youth from being engaged in unnecessary social ills and was one way of improving people’s lives.
“Football, because of its teamwork encourages discipline, it helps kids to remain focused and move away from being engaged in anti-social behaviour. We are happy in being involved with this tournament; it is a win-win for everyone,” added Janick.
LaLiga’s Africa Director, Antonio Barradas said as a partner of SAFA, they were always happy to work with corporate whose vision was to unearth and develop talent in the country.
“We joined hands with SAFA in football development because the Association on its own cannot do it alone without able partners and we are happy that the Sishen Solar Facility and Kathu Solar Park have come on board to drive this Nation Building project.
“We are confident we will discover some unpolished diamonds within the Province some of whom will play in the national teams and even go abroad to countries like Spain and make a name for themselves,” he added.
SAFA President, Dr Danny Jordaan hailed the Solar Youth Cup as a massive project which will help Northern Cape produce talent for the country.
“At the moment, the only renowned top football player from the Province is Rivaldo Coetzee and I believe there are many more Coetzees who will be discovered through this tournament. I also hope such tournaments become a regular feature for the Province. We need more of such tournaments,” added Dr Jordaan.
For more information and interviews, kindly contact:
Irfaan Petersen on +27 79 695 8651
or
Mark Janick on +27 82 254 3281