COPA Coca-Cola FIFA football tournament returns to Kingdom

COPA Coca-Cola, the international youth football tournament returned to the Kingdom amid much fanfare for the third year in succession as it was kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday.

The grassroots football initiative for teenagers strikes excitement among youth across the Kingdom as they are gearing up to participate in the annual competition for a chance to win a trip to 2014 FIFA World Cup, which has less than 100 days to go until it kicks off in Brazil.

Commenting on the official launch of 2014 edition of the tournament, Antoine Tayyar, Public Affairs and Communications director for Coca-Cola Middle East, said, “COPA Coca-Cola is a stellar example of how the Coca-Cola company embodies its time-honored ethos to live positively and open happiness."

"Through this program, the youth are empowered to achieve their dreams while learning about team spirit, respect and the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle," he added.

Exuding confidence that these teenagers will represent the Kingdom team when Qatar host the mega event in 2022, Tayyar maintained, "By 2022, we hope to see our Arab COPA players representing their countries at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.”

He informed that as a result of the work that COPA has done to raise the profile of football amongst youths and encourage them to get into the sport in this region, the youth tourney was recognized as an officially endorsed competition by FIFA in 2013.

He further added that through strategic partnerships with FIFA and local endorsement from the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF), COPA Coca-Cola is proactively shaping the future generation of football heroes.

"COPA Coca-Cola not only promotes an active and healthy lifestyle, but also seeks to plant seeds of respect, team spirit and friendship as the player’s blossom into able combatants armed with what it takes to represent their country in the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022," he stated.

Abdullah Arrak of the Coca-Cola bottling company said, "we are extremely pleased to partner with SAFF and glad that it was a huge success from recruiting young talent to come together to enjoy a common passion as we like to say in COPA, "everything for football". We look forward to discovering what new heroes the tournament will fish out from our local talent pool.”

Coca-Cola set up COPA Coca-Cola in Mexico in 1998. Since then, the tournament has gained so much momentum that it is now played across five continents and in 2009, whereas Coca-Cola Middle East introduced the COPA Coca-Cola chapter to the region for the first time in 2012, with tournaments taking place in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. The winning team have the chance to represent their country in a regional final tournament later in the year and ‘Become a Hero’. The winners of last year’s competitions were taken on an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2012 European championships in Poland and Ukraine.