UPF-Ticino: “PEACE CUP” soccer tournaments for youngsters in Switzerland, Italy and Albania
UPF-Ticino, Switzerland:The year 2019 is significant for our association because for the first time we had the opportunity to hold three fair-play soccer tournaments, each of them in a different nation, but under the same motto:
“Play football, build Peace”
In our Swiss region of Ticino, the “PEACE CUP” event became so popular that already two different sports associations asked us to help them to organize Peace Cup tournaments in their towns. UPF-Ticino, just ten years after its founding, could witness about our goals to the highest members of the Cantonal government!
Here the soccer events:
May 1st, 2019; Novazzano – Switzerland:8thedition of the Peace Cup tournament for children aged 10-11 years. The event became in the past years pretty well-known and familiar that before the registration deadline in March we had already 14 associations announced, which is the maximum for a one-day competition with 200 children. During the tournament we could observe that the participating soccer clubs were well prepared for the fair-play contest, emphasizing kindness on the field as well as on the crowded spectator grandstands.
UPF-Ticino offered lunch for the players and coaches and presented 16 trophies. Each team was rewarded by their rank plus one boy for a special fair-play gesture. The main prize, the Peace Cup 2019 was bestowed on the Novazzano sports club for offering a spectacular choreography of supporters.
May 5th, 2019; Malnate – Italy: 2ndedition of Peace Cup tournament for youngsters aged 11-12 years. The sports association of Malnate had participated every year in the tournament in Switzerland, so they asked UPF-Ticino to export the event. Participating were 8 teams from nearby Italian towns, under the presence of several municipal governors of whom one handed over the trophies at the end. The hosting association took the motto of the tournament very seriously: a sports psychologist held two evening-workshops for the participants and their parents, where they painted a beautiful banner about “winning with honesty and sincerity”. At the event, hundreds of brooches were distributed with the text: “parent =equal= educator”. The efforts of Malnate were crowned with the Peace-Cup trophy 2019!
May 9th+ 10th, 2019; Korcë – Albania: 1stedition of Peace Cup soccer tournament with 10 teams of boys and girls of school age. The two staff members of UPF-Ticino who spent 5 days on the location were welcomed with enthusiasm by the Albanian organizers and the municipal authorities. They were impressed by the promotion of the fair-play rules and pleased with a beautiful folkloristic dancing group of children during the event. Especially noteworthy and deserving of thanks were the remarkable educational projects by UPF Korcë through the network of Ambassadors for Peace. UPF-Ticino will surely promote further Peace Cup tournaments in the hospitable nation of Albania!
Please look at our reports, videos and pictures on: www.peacecup.upf-ticino.ch
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Report by Seraina Termine, UPF-Ticino