Festive soccer spectacles return bigger
Koketso Kgoboge | Thursday December 22, 2016 11:50
The annual ritual in Tutume, the Goledzwa football tournament returns bigger and better. The tourney started seven years back with participating teams contributing money towards the games. At the time, the champions pocketed P5,000.
However, this year the tournament has attracted sponsorship worth P120,000 from five companies; Dupa Enterprise, Eagles Cliff Enterprises, Air Cooling & Maintenance (Pty) Ltd, Ketan Enterprises and Ndadi Law Firm.
A total of P16,000 will be up for grabs when six teams take to Thini Primary School grounds on December 25 and the grand finale slated for the New Year’s Day. All participating teams will, however, get a price with last placed side walking away P8,000 richer.
In Palapye and its environs, the Master Goya Soccer Extravaganza, which is played in four editions; Palapye, Dikabeya, Sajwe, Lemone and Makoro has grown from the P8,000 sponsorship when it started back in 2007 to P80,000 this year.
The soccer spectacle has also grown in the number of participating teams from six teams in the first edition to 35 teams this year. The area MP, Moiseraela Goya sponsors the tournament.
Khurumela FC of Palapye is the defending champions after all the winners from their respective editions met in a top eight final early this year. The games are scheduled to kick off on December 24 and finals will be played on December 27. Radisele will be hosting a P40,000 worth Radisele Kasi Lam Festive tournament sponsored by Tshiamo Rantshoka. The spectacle will be played in two pools of five teams each.
All the 10 participating teams will walk away winners with the champions bagging P10,150, a kit and gold medals and the last team pocketing P1,400. Dzashangana Tournament has also grown in leaps and bounds. The northeast tournament is made up of four villages of Senyawe, Butale, Mowana and Tsamaya and it rotates around the four villages every year.
This year all roads lead to Butale where the 2016 edition will be held from December 24 to 28.
Dzashangana started some six years ago and like other tournaments, participating teams made contributions and to date it is worth over P36,000. Fidelity Print mark, Modumela Lodge and some patriotic individuals from the villages sponsor the tournament.
However, money is not of essence with the others. The Shashe Mooke tournament, which started in 2004, still relies on contributions from participating teams. Member of the organising committee, Mompoloki Stambole said their top priority is to keep the village alive.
“Of course it would make a huge difference for the village with more money but at the moment we are content with our contributions. Our mission is to entertain our community and the tournament has done a great job over the years and the support keeps on growing,” Stambole said.
In this edition Shashe Mooke tournament will be launching a new trophy after Celtics made history, becoming the first team to keep the first trophy after being crowned the champions for the third time in a row in the past edition. The battle begins on December 25 until New Year’s Eve.