Cairo – shraf AboArafe
To celebrate the upcoming World Cup games this summer, the Embassy of Switzerland, in cooperation with Egyptian football academy AIMZ, is organizing two days of a football tournament in Cairo on the 7th and 8th of June, in which around 190-220 teenage girls are expected to participate.
The tournament will take place in the evenings at the Egyptian Shooting Club in Cairo’s Dokki district. The President of FC Zurich Women and FIFA Ex-Deputy Director of the Competitions Division and the Head of Women’s Competition Tatjana Haenni is flying in to Cairo from Zurich to host workshops for the young female footballers during the two days of the tournament.
A closing ceremony will be held in the evening of 8th of June to hand out medals and prizes for the winners from among the tournament’ 32 teams. The ceremony will take place at 23.00 p.m. with the participation of the Ambassador of Switzerland to Egypt Paul Garnier and the UN Women Country Representative for Egypt Blerta Aliko.
“The World Cup games are around the corner and both Switzerland and Egypt are taking part. The tournament we are organizing in Cairo is a great way to bring the two countries together through sports and also through tradition, since the holy month of Ramadan is one in which youth tournaments in Egypt are very popular,” said Paul Garnier, the Ambassador of Switzerland to Egypt.
Throughout the 2-day tournament, the participating young girls will wear football T-Shirts with printed Swiss and Egyptian flags.
“The tournament also aims to encourage young girls in Egypt to participate in sporting events and to further encourage those among them who wish to pursue careers in football to do so,” said Ambassador Garnier.
The tournament is sponsored by the firms Hero, Nestlé, SWISS (member of Lufthansa Group) and Mariout Hills.
