Copa Coca-Cola continues to grow
THE launch of the 2017 Copa Coca-Cola Tournament at Rujeko High School in Mashonaland Central Province this week painted the province red as another edition of the prestigious schools tournament was officially launched.
This year’s edition will also give the best players in the boys category a once-in-a-lifetime chance to compete at the inaugural Five-A-Side World Cup in South Africa later this year.
The success of the tournament here is important given that this was the country which introduced this revolutionary schools’ football tournament, which is boosting the development of the game around the globe, to the world.
Copa Coca-Cola, a schools’ football tournament that started in Zimbabwe and provided a platform for players like the legendary Peter Ndlovu to announce their arrival on the big stage, has now turned into a global show played in more than 60 countries, across five different continents.
Two years ago, Zimbabwe was praised for its pioneering role and Coca-Cola noted that more than 80 000 schools from across the world took part in the Copa CocaCola tournament the previous year with more than 1.5 million teenage footballers showcasing their talent.
A global research conducted by the sponsors, Coca-Cola, praised Zimbabwe for its pioneering role in introducing the tournament in 1989, when a 16-year-old Ndlovu was still a student at Mzilikazi, and says the tournament has been such a huge success it has had a massive impact in the development of the game around the world.
“In 1989, Coca-Cola in Zimbabwe created a competition to empower footballing passion and support the development of budding grassroots talent,” the report reads.
“The event was an unrivalled success and soon spread throughout the country before, almost a decade later, moving across the Atlantic to Mexico in 1998, where it became Copa Coca-Cola (inspired by the Spanish word for Cup).
“The tournament was implemented in partnership with governments and football federations to make the competition one of the leading events in the country’s sporting calendar.
“Since the official introduction of the programme, Copa CocaCola has expanded to more than 60 countries across five different continents.
“Copa Coca-Cola continues to expand, with more countries and teens participating in the tournament. But what impact does football have on young people’s lives and how?
“In late 2014, Coca-Cola commissioned comprehensive global research to gain a greater understanding of the role football plays in the development of teenagers’ lives.
“This report investigates and describes the playing habits, motivations and aspirations of teenage footballers in 16 countries across the world.”
The report was a major coup for Coca-Cola Zimbabwe and their local partners, for their revolutionary innovation to start a tournament that has been embraced by the whole world.
Coca-Cola says the tournament continues to grow around the world and the company expects millions of more teenage schoolboys and girls around the world to play in the schools’ festival before they go on to make a name for themselves as professionals.
“So, what about the future? Will the current crop of football-mad teenagers continue to reap the benefits of playing the beautiful game or will their participation decrease in the future as their lives change?
“The interview group were directly asked this and encouragingly 61 percent strongly believed they would be playing in the next five years, with only 10 percent citing they were unlikely to be playing in that time frame.
“However, there is a strong difference between the sexes on future playing ambitions, with only 30 percent of girls claiming it was very likely that they would still be playing, compared to almost half (46 percent) of boys.
“One of the primary aims of Copa Coca-Cola is to give as many teens an opportunity to be active while playing a sport they love as possible. The results of the research demonstrate the significant benefits — physically, socially and mentally — teens garner playing football.
“As Copa Coca-Cola expands its footprints into new markets, the aim is for more and more players to get involved and for more teens to feel inspired to lead active healthy lives, form lasting friendships, learn important life skills and follow their dreams.”