Gunners crowned champions
ALEXANDRA – Alex children will for the first time have an opportunity to travel to Palestine to play soccer with their counterparts.
Gunners U13 team was crowned champions of the Free Palestine Solidarity Cup after beating bitter township rivals LRC FC 3–1 at the Number 3 Square Grounds.
On the other hand, to crown the champions was the Consul of the Embassy of the State of Palestine in Pretoria, Hassona Aldramly, who outlined the history of solidarity between the two countries dating back to the South African anti-apartheid struggle and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
When South Africa attained democracy, Aldramly said the parties then forged relations in sport with a soccer tournament called Free Palestine Soccer Tournament in partnership with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Department of Arts Culture and Sport, United Nations, Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, and the Sports Stepping Stones Organisation (Tripple S Organisation).
He said this soccer tournament was born from a Free Palestine Boxing Tournament organised in Lesotho five years ago and will become a fully-fledged annual event that takes South African children to Palestine one year and vice versa the following year.
As the tournament is ongoing in the various provinces, Aldramly said Alex children would for the first time have an opportunity to travel to Palestine toward the end of the year to play football against their Palestinian counterparts.
Aldramly expressed his gratitude to all the government departments involved in the tournament, the United Nations and the Triple S Organisation for what he said was a ‘show of support for our just cause’.
