Panorama Football Club to compete in Sweden

Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden but what makes it so special is that it’s home to the Gothia Cup, known as the world’s largest football tournament.

Here are some figures to back the scale of this tournament – 1 670 teams from 76 nations will participate in this prestigious tournament that will take place from 13 to 19 July.

But how does Roodepoort fit into this? Well the answer is easy, two teams from Panorama Football Club were the only teams in South Africa to qualify for this large tournament.

According to tour organiser Michael Schroder, the two teams have been practising together since January and they are focused on bringing home the cup.

“The boys are aged between 10 to 12 years and they compete in the U12 section of the tournament. The A-Team has been playing together for the last two years so they know each other pretty well, the B team has only been practising together for the last couple of months but has never played in a match as a team.”

Schroder added that the two teams’ practice routine has been changed slightly since the start of the year, as they now have an additional practice session once a week to focus on preparations for the tournament. “These players are now practising three days a week and it was amazing to see how each and every football player started to work a bit harder since they found out about the tournament.”

“We have 18 players that will be going on the tour with three coaches that will accompany them. I have to thank the parents for their dedication as each parent had to pay for their own children to be able to fly overseas and participate in the competition.”

Schroder concluded and said, “We only have one aim in mind – and that is to bring the cup home.”