Draw for Cape Town Peace Cup held



12 October 2009

The iconic Nobel Peace Center in the heart of Oslo was the venue for the draw for the Cape Town Peace Cup held in Oslo at the end of last week.

The draw was conducted by the CEO of the Nobel Peace Center, Bente Erichsen, and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Chief Mandla Mandela in the company of club representatives, the City of Cape Town and many other dignitaries.

The eight under 19 teams competing in the tournament have been drawn into the following groups:

Fixtures for the above matches will be announced at a later stage.

Speaking at the draw, Nobel Peace Center CEO, Bente Erichsen, expressed her joy at her organization being a key part of this event.

“Our focus at the Nobel Peace Center is respect, equality and brotherhood. Football can create fellowship that transcends beyond all boundaries and for us this is key,” explained Erichsen.

“For the City of Cape Town, the Peace Cup presents a further opportunity in the unification process. We know that sports play’s a major role in unifying countries and this is what we’d like to see at the end of the day when the South African team’s take on their international counterparts,” said Councillor Gerhard Ras of the City of Cape Town.

The two Cape Town clubs were represented at the draw by their chairmen.

“I think that you can see that South African Football has finally arrived with us hosting the Nobel Peace Center and international teams all under one umbrella. We now need to deliver a world class tournament,” said John Comitis, Chairman of Ajax Cape Town.

Comitis’ sentiments were echoed by Santos boss, Goolam Allie.

“ It’s a culmination of the hard struggle of many years experienced by footballers in the Western Cape and it’s only fitting that we host a tournament of this magnitude,” expressed Allie.

The opening ceremony of the Cape Town Peace Cup will take place on 26 November 2009 with the King and Queen of Norway the guests of honour.