Durban U19 international football tourney

TEAMS taking part in the Durban U19 International Football Tournament were announced at a media briefing held at the Moses Mabhida Stadium last week.

The participating teams include the cream of European football in English giants Arsenal FC, the masters of football, AC Milan (Italy), current log leaders PSV Eindhoven (Holland), Galatasary (Turkey) and Celtic FC (Scotland). They will be joined by VfB Stuttgart (Germany).

The home teams, the KZN Academy X1 and the SAFA National U19 Team, will keep the South African flying.

All teams have expressed excitement at their inclusion in the tournament.

Speaking ahead of the announcement, head of Arsenal Academy Andries Jonker, said: “We are delighted to be taking part in what is a prestigious pre-season tournament for Under 19s. It will give us a good test as we prepare for the new season and give the players some valuable experience.”

His sentiments were echoed by AC Milan’s Youth Sector Manager, Filippo Galli, who stated: “It's a very important tournament in the international youth football and it will be an honour for us to participate. Doing this enriches young players, not only in terms of football, but also human, allowing them to know different cultures. For our Under-19 team it will be an important opportunity to prepare for the new season in a test of such a high level.”

The tournament will be in Durban from Wednesday, 29 July to Saturday, 8 August. It is envisaged that the opening matches will be played at Princess Magogo Stadium (KwaMashu) and Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium (Claremont), with the semi-finals at King Zwelithini Stadium (Umlazi) and the finals at the 2010 FIFA World Cup venue, Moses Mabhida Stadium.

The president of the South African Football Association, Dr Danny Jordaan, said that the organisation was excited to be a part of the tournament as it falls in line with the their 2022 vision of building competitive national teams that would see the country in the top three in Africa and top twenty in the World.

“The participation of our own SA U/19 national team and the KZN Academy X1 ensures that our teams get much needed experience to compete against the best in the world. As we build towards the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, it is important that we support tournaments of this nature that give us a barometer of how competitive our teams are in international football,” he said.

The Mayor of eThekwini Municipality, James Nxumalo said that tournaments of this nature were very significant as sports not only promoted economic development and a healthy lifestyle, but was also a catalyst for social cohesion.