Leicester City FC wins Easter tournament
Leicester City FC emerged victorious at the Collegians Football Club first annual Easter tournament held over the weekend in Pietermaritzburg.
A total of 16 teams drawn from areas across the province converged at the Collegians Football Club sports field to compete for first place.
The idea behind this tournament, which was open to everyone, was to bring football back for the juniors, seniors and also to give them some kind of hope that there is a future in football. It started on Friday and ended on Sunday.
Four teams made it to the semi-finals. Unfortunately Golden Tigers was disqualified because they used a player that was not meant to be on the field. Leicester City FC made it to the finals after beating Jacks United FC.
Leicester City FC won 5-3 on penalties, beating Maritzburg Eagles. They walked away with R5000 prize money, new senior kits, gold medals and a trophy. Taking second place, Maritzburg Eagles walked away with R3000 and silver medals. Jacks United FC came third and won R1000 and bronze medals.
An ecstatic Leicester City FC captain, David Marais, said they were not expecting to win and it came as a surprise.
“We just wanted to have a nice weekend and enjoy ourselves and each other’s company. We started preparing three weeks before the tournament started,” said Marais.
He added that he thinks growing up together and knowing one another very well helped contribute to their win.
“Not putting too much pressure on ourselves worked out in our favour. We enjoyed ourselves while winning. I am proud by the way everyone played.”
Speaking about the tournament, Marais said it was organised in an experienced and organised manner.
Collegians Football Club chairman and founder Henry Lamprecht said he was not expecting what happened during the Easter weekend to happen so beautifully.
He added that this tournament was put together basically on a thought.
“I had a thought one day and
I said to my boys at the club, this is what we are going to do. The message we wanted to convey is to never give up. We believe that if you start something you should never give up and you will make it a reality. For us that reality was a successful one. We are happy with the outcome,” said Lamprecht.
“There was a nice mixture of football as we got to see how different areas play football. We put this tournament together to try and get the community to start looking forward to the annual Easter tournament.”
“We cannot continue in this country and hope to see our children perform at the level that we want when we are not doing what is necessary. The responsibility is on us as parents to drive this hard and strong to bring the very best out of our people, communities and most importantly, out of our children,” Lamprecht added.