Cape Town - The first-ever Grannies International Football Tournament (GIFT) will be hosted by the Limpopo-based Vakhegula Vakhegula FC in Tzaneen starting on Sunday.
The Vakhegula Vakhegula grannies club (aged 55-84) has been a trendsetter internationally and since 2019 they have been playing abroad and winning international tournaments. As a result, they enjoyed great pulling power when they sent out invitations and the US and France are among the international entries.
Several African countries will compete in the month-long tournament. They include Malawi, Lesotho, Togo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Guinea and Zambia. The South African entries will be drawn from the various provinces (Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal) to complete the 20-team line-up.
Competition time#GIFT23 pic.twitter.com/2R8URQFO3a
— Vakhegula-Vakhegula FC (@VakhegulaF) March 7, 2023
The matches will be played at Tzaneen sports venues like the Nkowankowa Stadium, Burgersdorp Stadium, Lenyenye Stadium and Julesburg Stadium.
The semi-finals and finals will be played on April 29, followed by the closing ceremony. The winners will pocket R50 000, with the runners-up taking home R20 000.
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The 20 teams have been divided into five groups of four, and on the first day all the teams will play in a round-robin format. Each half will be 20 minutes long, with the entire match lasting 40 minutes.
The top teams in each group, along with the best three runners-up, will make up the quarter-finalists. The semi-finals and finals will be played on the last day (March 29).
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This event is the brainchild of Vakhegula Vakhegula founder, Beka Ntsanwisi, a philanthropist and former broadcaster popularly known as Mama Beka, who used to work on a home-based care project taking care of sick elderly patients.
In 2018, 18 members of the Vakhegula Vakhegula club went to the World Cup in Russia.
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