Gelvandale Stadium to host Easter Soccer tournament

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Soccer players can dust off their soccer boots and get ready for the popular annual Easter Soccer Tournament which takes place at the Gelvandale Stadium over Easter weekend.

General Motors South Africa (GMSA) is the proud sponsor of this year's event. Now in its 41st year and organised by the Northern Areas Football Association (NAFA), the Easter Soccer Tournament is one of the largest amateur tournaments on the South Africa soccer calendar, with 24 senior teams and 40 junior teams participating, and a vibrant junior component which includes coaching clinics and life skills workshops.

GMSA has had a long association with the tournament and its sponsorship of this year's event will mostly go towards club fees and kit for young soccer players through the Help Our Children Play sport development initiative, GMSA corporate communications manager Gishma Johnson said.

"Participation in sports is one way to instil discipline in the youth and take their focus off the drugs and gangsterism prevalent on the streets of the Northern Areas," she said.

Help Our Children Play is the brainchild of a group of local entrepreneurs who are launching the campaign in response to social problems of crime, gangsterism, drugs, alcoholism and child abuse, with a particular focus on Port Elizabeth's Northern Areas, which have been plagued by a rise in drug- and gang-related incidents.

The organisation will use the Easter Soccer Tournament, an annual highlight on the Northern Areas sporting and social calendar, as a high-profile platform to kick off the campaign, which aims to raise funds to reduce the costs of soccer participation for underprivileged youngsters from the area.

NAFA President Valentine Brink said the campaign would strengthen the tournament's youth and sports development aspect, enabling it to continue beyond the tournament itself and make a lasting impact.

"The sponsorship by GMSA contributes to making sport affordable and accessible for these children, and keeping them off the streets," Brink said.

The Easter Soccer Tournament has returned to its "spiritual home" at the Gelvandale Stadium, he said. It takes place over the Easter weekend, from 18 to 21 April 2014.

Help Our Children Play CEO Ashton Prince said the project was a "call to action campaign" to encourage members of the community and business owners to help children fight social ills.
"The current average cost for a junior to participate in the game of football is R900 per season. Considering that the bulk of our community battles to feed their households, these costs are the first to be dumped," Prince said.

The campaign will also support life skills programmes to "help our kids think beyond their circumstances," he added.