Copa Coca-Cola: Soft drinks bottler launches football tournament

Coca-Cola is offering the opportunity to young Mauritians to showcase their soccer talents through the Copa Coca-Cola competition. The initiative stands as an integral Sponsorship of a Tournament – 16 years of Mauritius Secondary Schools Sports Association (MSSSA). Based on the founding principles of the Copa Coca-Cola, organisers and sponsors of this tournament aim to (re)boost the interest in football, at national level, amongst the youth based on “their common passion for the king of sports” as well as to highlight the talents of our schools and regions. Organised in partnership with the MSSSA, flagship organisation working for the promotion of school sport, the tournament is a ‘global asset’ of The Coca-Cola Company which has made it a formidable tool in the promotion of sport in general and football, particularly in (secondary) schools. Amongst the many aims of the initiative is also to promote active healthy living and to showcase the best talent. For Patrice Sheik Bajeet, marketing director at PhoenixBev, the choice of MSSSA as partner-organizer of the tournament is a natural choice... “because we know their track record and their strong presence in schools. The structure of the MSSSA and seriousness of its members are the guarantee of success.” PhoenixBev, appointed bottler of Coca-Cola in Mauritius, is thus confident in the success of the tournament which aims to quickly become the reference in the promotion of football talents and sport in Mauritian schools. The tournament will bring together teams of 15-16 year old youths from eight regions, as defined by the MSSSA, who will compete in the first regional round under the ‘pool’ formula then in a knock-out tournament to induct the champion of each region. The 16 teams (8 men and 8 women) who will emerge from these first rounds will compete in a final national tournament which will be held in May. “It’s a real pride for my colleagues and I to offer this platform for sporty expression to the Mauritian youth. This tournament will give us the opportunity to uncover future champions and potential talents,” declared Valerie Rochecouste, marketing manager of Coca-Cola for the Indian Ocean. Besides the prestige associated with the final victory in this tournament, Copa Coca-Cola aims to detect talents that will be selected by a panel of experts who will later animate a National Copa Camp (residential training camp) dedicated to 40 top talents (22 boys and 18 girls). According to Anand Sukhraj, administrative secretary of the MSSSA, experts have already identified some talents (the names of Mukesh Ramrekha and Quéland Tombé have already been cited) and will look out for more during the regional tournaments. Through this tournament, Coca-Cola specifically aims to inspire young players to realise their dreams, give voice to individuals and emerging talents and expose the pride of youth and its faith in the future. The promotion of the tournament will also be done through social networks including Facebook, with a very innovative approach to video coverage, web correspondents and multimedia content.