The VIVA World Cup 2010 is to be staged in Gozo next week.
It is an international football tournament organised by the New Federation Board, an umbrella association for nations (or regions) unaffiliated with FIFA.
It will be held between Monday 31 May and Saturday 5 June and the male participants, apart from Gozo, will be Padania, Iraqi Kurdistan, Provence, Occitania and Regno delle due Sicilie. The female cup will be contested by the teams from Gozo and Padania.
The tournament was officially launched yesterday at the Bank of Valletta Head Offices in St Venera. Bank of Valletta are the main sponsors of the tournament.
Alvin Grech, president of the Gozo FA, said the organisation of such a tournament provided an opportunity for Gozo to have more facilities. “We now have two good football facilities – the Gozo Stadium and the one at Sannat. Moreover, we had to work hard early to ensure accommodation for all those coming over to the sister island for a whole week. Three hotels are fully booked and this means good news for the tourism sector as well,” added Grech.
He added that the teams have some high levels especially the Italians who possess players who play in the Serie B and C and are full professionals. We have also made sure to strengthen our team as much as possible and we will also be including players like Sean Bajada, Daniel Bogdanovic and Chris Camilleri, all of whom are eligible to take part. These players should ensure the best formation possible as well as obtain more respectable results for our team, even if we are not expecting to win the tournament,” he said.
Dr Joseph Grech, chairman of the VIVA World Cup organising committee, said this was not a competition in which one looked forward to be a winner. “Through this competition, we want to give a message to our children. We want the youngsters to have fun through football. We want to tell everyone that the financial aspect is not as important as the values of sport,” he added.
He said this competition will hopefully be the first in a series of events to be held in Gozo. “It will be involving about 1,700 bed nights in all and that will certainly help the touristic sector in Gozo. Moreover, proceeds from the matches will go towards two philantropic organisations – ARKA and OASI Foundations,” he said.
He added that Gozo had competed with Padania and Kurdistan to stage the event. He went on to thank the Bank of Valletta for the generous support.
Mr Igino Xuereb, Chief Officer at Bank of Valletta, said that the bank had always supported sport and went on to outline a list of events that have been supported by BoV during this month. “Bank of Valletta is a strong supporter of sporting initiatives which include the major football competitions in Malta as well as the Gozo Super Cup. The Bank also helps in other disciplines, especially basketball,” he added.
The programme begins on Monday at 5.30pm with the Kurdistan-Regno delle due Sicilie match. At 7.25pm there will be an opening ceremony to be followed at 8.15pm by the Gozo-Padania match.
There will be matches every day but on Thursday it is a rest day for the men’s teams. On that day, there will be the first leg of the match for the women’s cup between Gozo and Padania at 8pm. The second leg is to be played on Saturday 5 June at 4pm, which will be followed by the final of the men’s competition at 6pm.