Alexandra’s Map Games are back with a bang
The Map Games are back with a bang in Alexandra and have even doubled up the winner’s prize money to R200 000 as a sweetener to attract good quality teams to the formerly Covid-hit development tournament.
Alexandra’s top football development tournament, the Maimane Alfred Phiri (Map) Games is back with a bang following a two-year Covid-19 forced hiatus.
The tournament returns to the stadiums on November 19 with kick-off set for the dusty Emfuleni Sports Grounds in River Park before moving to the Alexandra Stadium for the quarterfinals right up to the finals on December 18.
Speaking in an interview with Alex News soon after the draw for the senior division of the tournament, which normally comprises teams from far afield as KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, tournament founder Maimane Phiri said he was overjoyed to be back in the business of grassroots soccer development.
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“I am over the moon to be back again in the business of football development. You don’t know the stress of the past two years without the games and what I had endured trying to re-establish the tournament, as you can see it missed its normal winter slot as it was pretty much like starting afresh to organise the games.
“We had challenges with sponsors, but I am glad my team finally managed to pull it off and here we are today, launching the tournament and conducting the draw.
“I am a person that doesn’t easily give up on something that I want and have focussed all my attention on,” said Phiri, a football legend who played for Ajax Cape Town, Moroka Swallows before moving abroad to Turkey.
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The former Bafana Bafana midfield maestro said some people had written his tournament off after he lost some of the key sponsors but expressed his gratitude to the City of Johannesburg and sports apparel manufacturer MonFlair for standing behind him through thick and thin.
The winners of the tournament stand to pocket a whooping R200 000 in prize money and gold medals and the floating trophy while the runners-up will pocket R110 000, with the third-placed team receiving R35 000. The top eight- teams will all receive new sports kits from MonFlair and the finalists will receive a second set of kits.
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