Gothenburg, Sweden, July 20, 2013 – At the 2013 Gothia Cup, the world’s largest youth football tournament, two SKF sponsored youth football teams from China achieved great results. The girls’ team won a place in the final 16 in playoff B and the boys’ team made it to 1/64 final in their playoff A. Both teams are in the age group of 12.
The two SKF sponsored teams from China – the boys’ team from Ningyuan Centre Primary School in Liaoning province and girls’ team from Linying Beijie School in Henan province – overcame remarkable odds to achieve the result.
Both teams topped this year’s SKF “Meet the World” football tournament in China, beating 20 teams from 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across China. At the 2013 Gothia Cup, they interacted with their peers from more than 80 countries to exchange social and cultural experiences and share a common bond. Ultimately, the rich experience at the Gothia Cup will help them contribute in developing their local communities.
“SKF is extremely proud of what the two teams representing China have achieved at this year’s Gothia Cup,” said Mr. Zhu Jiming, President of SKF China. “The result shows Chinese youth’s hunger and dedication to excel and succeed when given the right platform and opportunity to showcase their talent. SKF believes that youth sports are a great equalizer in China, and we are committed to help underprivileged children realize their dreams.”
“We are truly excited to be part of the Gothia Cup, and thank SKF for giving us the opportunity to reimagine our future,” said the captain of Liaoning team. “Meeting youth from around the world at the Gothia Cup helped us realize that there is a common thread of hopes and dreams in our cultural diversity. With football transcending culture and language, SKF has not only enabled us to broaden our horizons, but made us realize that we should be the change we want to see.”
Established in 1975, today Gothia Cup is a youth association football tournament held annually in Gothenburg, Sweden, open for both boys and girls aged 11 – 19 years. Its pre-event games “Meet the World Tournaments” are one of SKF’s largest corporate social responsibility projects involving local SKF companies hosting football tournaments in their countries, including China. The purpose is to create global meetings points for youth regardless of gender, social background, age, culture or religion. SKF has sponsored a total of 21 teams from 20 countries at the 2013 Gothia Cup.
As the official sponsor of the Gothia Cup since 2007, SKF runs the successful “Meet the World” football tournament in China to help change underprivileged children’s lives. With rapid urbanization changing the face of China, rural communities in the country need additional support to help them realize the ‘China Dream.’ Through youth football competition, SKF empowers underprivileged children to fulfil their potential, and provides a platform to get a better understanding of the changes happening in China and around the world. To date, SKF has enabled hundreds of youth from China to establish cross-cultural friendships at the Gothia Cup.
For further information, please contact:
Jerry Ni, SKF China Corporate Communication, +86 21 2321 2534; Jerry.Ni@skf.com
SKF is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems, and services which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training. SKF is represented in more than 130 countries and has around 15,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2012 were SEK 64,575 million and the number of employees was 46,775. www.skf.com
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