GOOAALL! VCU World Cup scores one for culture

0

This summer’s 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is 77 days and soccer fans all over the world and at VCU are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the most watched and celebrated sporting event in the world.

Adam Stern
Sports Editor

This summer’s 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is 77 days and soccer fans all over the world and at VCU are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the most watched and celebrated sporting event in the world. The World Cup will be held nearly 8200 miles east of Richmond and will be comprised of 32 teams saturated with the most gifted soccer players from all over the globe.

VCU’s own (and first) official rendition of the tournament may not match up to the fabled soccer showdown in terms of glitz, glamour or greenbacks, but it should hold up just fine in one department: Diversity.

The tournament – to be held this weekend at the Cary Street Field – will feature 18 different teams, each a different nation made up of at least three natives of that country with contestants ranging from every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

“What greater way to show off your campus’s diversity then by having a World Cup? If you have enough diversity on your campus to have an international competition, I think that’s great,” SGA Chairman and Team Peru participant Gonzalo Aida said.

Originally just a conceptual idea thought up last summer by current SGA President and Vice-President Gabriel Walker and Roberto Celis, the plan went from hypothetical to tangible only through the advent of a new Special Grants Committee that just began this semester at VCU.

The committee is crucial because they can allot up to $15,000 per student group for an event and their addition has led to a much quicker turnaround in the normal application and appropriation process, those familiar with the process said.

With the event now a reality, tournament organizers are hard at work to ensure the event will reflect VCU’s cultural themes in more ways than one.

On top of the diversity that comes naturally at a school with such a large melting pot, organizers were equally adamant in ensuring the event would reflect VCU’s Go-Green initiatives by using local, environmentally-conscious companies to help run the event.

All of the tournament’s jerseys are being purchased from a Midlothian store – Global Embroidery – that specializes in producing organic tee shirts while all the sporting equipment will be bought from local sporting good shops.

The event will also feature international cuisine from local restaurants including Ethiopian-themed restaurant The Nile and Thai cuisine from Elephant Thai.

“People are going to be hungry and try food they’ve never tried before. Some people have never had Ethiopian food but its great—that’s one of the best things VCU can offer students: Culture,” Celis said.

Aido and Celis alike agree that, like the World Cup, VCU itself demonstrates how a kaleidoscope of culture and ethnicity  can bring people together.

“A gentlemen once said to me ‘the campus of VCU is the face of America’ because of how diverse we are—and I believe that 100 percent.”

Leave a Reply