Presentation of the biggest Barça Academy Cup Las Américas ever with 600 athletes

Presentation of the biggest Barça Academy Cup Las Américas ever with 600 athletes

Tournament sponsored by ScotiaBank involves 6 age levels

The Dominican Republic is once again the epicentre for the Barça Academy family in the Americas as it hosts the fourth edition of the Barça Academy Cup Las Américas on the Los Establos polo grounds at Cap Cana, featuring more than 600 boys and girls aged 7 to 18 years. This edition is taking place from December 12 to 15 has set a new record in terms of countries appearing, with nine different nationalities as well as two teams flying across from Barça Escola Barcelona, who as every year are among the favourites to win their respective tournaments.

For the second year running, Scotiabank is the main sponsor of the event, as well as being the sponsor of Barça Academy República Dominicana. The experience for the youngsters will be completed by a variety of sport and leisure activities being organised by the bank to ensure that the participants’ time in the Caribbean country will be an unforgettable one.

The nine countries competing in the Barça Academy Cup Las Américas are arriving from Canada, the United States (San Diego, Chicago, Columbus, Charlotte, Austin and Barça Academy PRO New York), Costa Rica, Mexico (Puebla), Colombia (Bogota, Cali, Medellin), Brazil (Sao Paulo), Peru (Lima), the Dominican Republic and Barcelona.

There is also a record number of participating teams, rising from 54 last year to 58 in the six categories this time round. Playing seven-a-side we have teams in Initiation (born 2013-2012); Formation (2011-2010); Pre-competition (2009-2008); Competition (2007-2006); and in eleven-a-side the teams are competing as U16 (2005-2004); and U18 (2003-2002-2001), with local clubs Punta Cana FC and Cibao FC also appearing as guests.

The press conference to present the event was held at Hard Rock Café Santo Domingo, where the guests included Janet Rivera, Directing Partner of the Barça Academy in the Dominican Republic, and Iñaki Andreu, director of Barça Academy Operations and development, who commented that “the tournament is a great experience for the more than 600 athletes in the project’s most important and strategic region, home to 27 of the current 54 schools around the world”.

In turn, Danilo de la Pava, head of international sponsorship at ScotiaBank, spoke about how especially fond the bank is of the Barça Academy Cup Las Américas, because “for us it is an extension of our involvement as sponsors of FC Barcelona through this footballing encounter between the club’s schools all across the American continent, meaning we do our little bit for young athletes to make contact with the FC Barcelona philosophy and style of play”.

Also involved in the presentation were Miguel Huller, head of Retail & Small Business Banking at Scotiabank; Xavier Mondelo, Head of Barça Academy América and Daniel Meca, local project director of Barça Academy República Dominicana.

The opening ceremony of the fourth edition of the Barça Academy Cup Las Américas is taking place next Thursday 12 December at 8:30AM on the Los Establos polo grounds at Cap Cana and the games get under way at 10AM. The finals will take place on Sunday 15 December from noon onwards.

The tournament can be followed on the Barça Academy social media accounts, on Facebook www.facebook.com/barcaacademy, Twitter www.twitter.com/barcaacademy and Instagram www.instagram.com/barcaacademy. To join the conversation, publications will be tagged with the official hashtag #BarcaAcademyAmericas.

The games can also be followed on the competition’s official app, available for Android and IOS by searching for “FC Barcelona Events”.

 

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