Airtel Kicks Off Largest Youth Soccer Initiative in Africa

Arsenal’s Marketing Director Angus Kinnear hands over a replica shirt to Kenya’s Prime Minister, Right Hon. Raila Odinga (left) During the launch of Airtel Rising Stars Africa Championships in Nairobi. The tournament which brings together Africa’s best talent in the boys and girls under 17 categories will take place from the 21st to the 25th of August.

21 Aug 2012 04:51 Africa/Lagos

Airtel Pan-African Youth Tourney Kicks off

The largest youth Soccer initiative in Africa

NAIROBI, August 21, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ --


• Program touted as largest youth Soccer initiative in Africa

Manchester United’s Marketing Director Jonathan Rigby (Right) hands over a replica shirt to Kenya’s Prime Minister, Right Hon. Raila Odinga (left) During the launch of Airtel Rising Stars Africa Championships in Nairobi. He was accompanied by Manoj Kohli CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel and Airtel Africa, Chief Marketing Officer, Andre Beyers (extreme right).


• Championship is a culmination of regional & national preliminaries in 15 African Nations, involving 18,000 schools & 324,000 girls & boys


• Winners to receive wild card invitation to Manchester United & Arsenal clinics in Nairobi & Accra


The Airtel Africa Championships (http://www.airtel.com) officially kicked off today in Nairobi, Kenya. The tournament which brings together Africa's best talent in the boys and girls under 17 categories will take place from the 21st to the 25th of August.


Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/airtel.jpg


The championship is the culmination of regional and national tournaments in 15 countries in the African continent. The Championship is part of the Airtel Rising Stars program, a soccer talent initiative that is focused on identifying and nurturing soccer talent from the grassroots onto a national stage. Touted as the biggest tournament in the continent the championships attracted approximately 18,000 youth teams and 324,000 youth players in the 15 countries. In addition to galvanising the biggest turnout during the qualification stage, the program has also broken new ground by introducing girls to a pan African tournament.


The Airtel Africa Championship was officially opened by Kenya's Prime Minister, The Rt.Hon. Raila Odinga accompanied by the tourney sponsors – Airtel Africa – led by Manoj Kohli the CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel.


The Soccer Championships will herald the unveiling of two specialised Airtel Rising Soccer Clinics run by soccer coaches from the Manchester United and Arsenal Soccer Schools. Present at the Championships launch were officials from both clubs namely; Mr. Jonathan Rigby, Marketing Director, Manchester United and Angus Kinnear, Marketing Director, Arsenal Football Club. The two clinics will be attended by two of the club's legends Peter Schmeichel and Ray Parlour.

In the opening fixtures, the hosts Kenyan whitewashed Malawi in the Girls tournament opener 11-0 with Vivian Adhiambo scoring 5 goals in the rout. In the Boy's opener, Malawi beat Kenya 5-1 to lead Group B. The other teams in the group are Madagascar and Ghana.


Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of Bharti Airtel Limited.



Notes to the editor


• The Countries that have rolled out the Airtel Rising Stars include Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia

• Airtel has two territorial partnership agreements with Arsenal and Manchester United Football Clubs. The two agreements bestow several rights to Airtel as the telecommunication partner in the selected markets. Key amongst the rights is the technical expertise provided by the two clubs at the Airtel Rising Stars soccer clinics. The clinics are run by respective club's soccer schools program.


Photo 1: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=266


Photo 2: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=267


Download the Video Footage: http://yousend.it/POG7sB



About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited (http://www.airtel.com) is a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G services, fixed line, high speed broadband through DSL, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G mobile services. Bharti Airtel had over 257 million customers across its operations at the end of June 2012. To know more please visit, http://www.airtel.com


For more information please contact:

Michael Okwiri

Vice President, Corporate Communications

Airtel Africa

Michael.Okwiri@africa.airtel.com

Source: Bharti Airtel Limited

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