World Cup Trophy on African tour

Malawi has been sidelined from the list of African countries where The 2014 Fifa World Cup Trophy started a 20-day tour of some African countries yesterday.

Fifa, in partnership with sponsors The Coca-Cola Company, are hosting the tour which entered Africa through Egypt with heads of State as the only persons allowed to touch the solid gold trophy.

“This tour gives us the opportunity to share our passion for the beautiful game with fans across the globe who are given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the trophy up close in their home country.

“I want to thank our long-term partner Coca-Cola for making this dream come true for many millions of football fans around the globe,” Fifa president Joseph Blatter told www.fifa.com.

The rest of the fans can only have an up-close, win World Cup tickets and also meet world football legends accompanying the trophy such as MarionZagallo and Bebeto.

The 267-day worldwide journey is on a 40-passenger McDonnell Douglas 83 aircraft.

Unlike her predecessor, Malawi President Joyce Banda will not have the opportunity to touch the trophy as the tour does not include Malawi. Bingu wa Mutharika held the trophy in 2009 when it was in transit to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.

Fifa and Coca-Cola announced on their respective websites that the trophy will have stopovers in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa and then return to Brazil on December 6 2013.

The tour covers 89 countries. There is no explanation as to how the African countries were selected.

The 148 000-km trophy tour would have been handled in Malawi by Coca-Cola Malawi Limited. It will visit Kenya on November 27 and Coca-Cola Kenya manager Rocky Fidley told the Kenya media they are ready.

“Hundreds of fans will win free tickets through Coca-Cola promotions which will give them a chance to not only get up close with the trophy, but take a picture next to it during a public viewing session at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) on Nov 28,” Fidley is quoted as saying.