POSTED: Wednesday November 19th 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KOPANYA – the official match ball for the FIFA
Confederations Cup 2009 unveiled
Four days before the draw for the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009, the tournament’s official match ball today (19 November) made its debut on the global football stage. KOPANYA was used for the first time at the Nelson Mandela Challenge played between hosts South Africa and Cameroon at Rustenburg’s Olympia Park, with Miss South Africa Tansey Coetzee bringing the ball onto the pitch. The ball was specially designed for the “Festival of Champions”, which will feature the six continental champions as well as 2010 FIFA World Cup™ hosts South Africa and 2006 FIFA World Cup™ champions Italy.
The name of the ball and its unusual design pay tribute to the host country South Africa. FIFA Partner adidas has provided the official match balls for all FIFA tournaments since 1970 and has traditionally linked the name and design of the match ball for major international tournaments to the host country. With KOPANYA, adidas has for the first time presented a match ball specifically made for the FIFA Confederations Cup.
The word “kopanya” comes from Southern Sesotho, a South African language spoken by almost five million people in various provinces of South Africa and in Lesotho. Literally translated, kopanya means “join together”, and that’s exactly what it is hoped the FIFA Confederations Cup will do in giving global football fans a taste of what is to come a year later at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. The FIFA Confederations Cup, to be held from 14 to 28 June 2009, will take place in four South African cities, namely Bloemfontein/Mangaung, Johannesburg, Rustenburg and Pretoria/Tshwane.
The Nelson Mandela challenge is a friendly match played annually in tribute to South Africa’s former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela. Please find further details on the official match ball on the FIFA Media Channel.
FIFA Media Channel
Media representatives who have not already registered for the FIFA Media
Channel can do so at http://media.fifa.com. The FIFA Media
Channel is a registration-only area on FIFA.com providing media professionals
with tailored content. For more information on the FIFA Confederations Cup,
please visit http://www.fifa.com/southafrica2009” href=“http://www.fifa.com/southafrica2009” target=“_blank”>http://www.fifa.com/
Further information from:
FIFA Media Officer Delia Fischer, E-mail: delia.fischer@fifa.org or media@fifa.org, Mobile: +2783 2010470; SALOC Media Manager, Jermaine Craig, E-mail: jermaine.craig@2010oc.com, Mobile: +27832010121, http://webmail.2010oc.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fifa.com/ blocked::http://webmail.2010oc.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fifa.com/ http://www.fifa.co” href=“http://webmail.2010oc.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fifa.com/” target=“_blank”>www.FIFA.com
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Keywords · FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 · soccer · FIFA · Miss South Africa Tansey Coetzee · Nelson Mandela
Name: Delia Fischer
Organization: FIFA
Email:
Phone: +2783 2010470
URL: http://www.fifa.com/index.html
Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.
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