After months of waiting, the coveted FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy has arrived in South Africa – and the citizens of this country have a chance to get up close and personal with the prestigious work of art.
After entering the African continent through Morocco on Monday (20 March 2023), the trophy will be in Soweto on Wednesday (22 March 2022).
Residents of Pimville/Klipspruit and surrounding areas are invited to come to Shapa Soweto (formerly known as the Nike Football Training Centre) to pose for photographs next to the trophy and to mingle with some of the Banyana Banyana players and head coach Desiree Ellis, who will be present from 10h00.
There will also be coaching clinics for 500 girls.
On Thursday (23 March 2023) the trophy will be on display at the SABC Radio Park foyer in Auckland Park between 07h00 and 10h00, before making its way to the Chris Hani Mall in Vosloorus from 11h00 – 14h00.
The next stop for the tour will the neighbouring Zambia (Friday, 24 March) before exiting the continent through Nigeria (Sunday, 26 March).
All four countries African countries – Morocco, South Africa, Zambia and Nigeria are part of the journey of the trophy, which visits all the nations that have qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup that will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 20 July to 20 August.
The tour is crisscrossing the globe, visiting Asia, Africa, South America, North America and Europe.
The first stop was Japan last month.
This is the first time ever that the FIFA Women’s World Cup will host 32 countries, from the initial 24 in France four years ago – making this trophy tour the biggest as all the nations will be visited.
In 2019, three African nations had qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup – South Africa, Cameroon and Nigeria and also had a chance to welcome this event.
The hosting city for Banyana Banyana back then was Durban (7 April 2019), with the next stop being Yaoundé (9 April 2019) before rounding off the African journey with a stop-over in Abuja (11 April 2019).
This time around, eight countries will taste the tour for the first time ever as they will be making their debut in the World Cup:
Panama
Portugal
Haiti
Morocco
Vietnam
Zambia
Republic of Ireland
Philippines
In the final weeks before the start of the tournament all nine Women’s World Cup host cities will get a chance to host the trophy.
The last stop will be Hamilton in New Zealand from 12-14 July, a few days before the start of the women’s football spectacle.
THE FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP™ TROPHY TOUR ROUTE:
Schedule Subject To Change
Japan, 25-26 February
Korea Republic, 27 February
Philippines, 1-2 March
Vietnam, 4-5 March
China PR, 9-11 March
Morocco, 20 March
South Africa, 22-23 March
Zambia, 24 March
Nigeria, 26 March
Brazil, 29-30 March
Argentina, 1 April
Colombia, 3 April
Costa Rica, 5 April
Panama, 8 April
USA, 11-13 April
Haiti, 15 April
Jamaica, 17 April
Canada, 19-20 April
Switzerland, 29 April/1 May
Germany , 2-3 May
Denmark, 4 May
Sweden, 6-7 May
Norway, 8 May
Republic of Ireland, 10 May
England, 13-14 May
Italy, 16 May
Netherlands, 18 May
France, 20-21 May
Spain, 22 May
Portugal, 24 May
Auckland, NZL, 2-4 June
Sydney, AUS, 9-12 June
Melbourne, AUS, 14-16 June
Hamilton, NZ, 17-20 June
Dunedin, NZ, 22-25 June
Brisbane, AUS, 28 June to 1 July
Adelaide, AUS, 2-4 July
Perth, AUS, 7-10 July
Wellington, NZ, 12-14 July
This article was first published by cebtercircle.com and related by kick442.com as an official media partner
