{"id":4024,"date":"2017-04-11T21:32:11","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T19:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/?p=4024"},"modified":"2017-04-11T21:32:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T19:32:11","slug":"quality-field-for-nafa-easter-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/football\/quality-field-for-nafa-easter-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality field for Nafa Easter tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Areas Football Association Easter tournament director Valentine Brink said they were gearing up for another high-quality festival of soccer when the event celebrated its 44th edition this weekend.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by SPAR Eastern Cape for the second year, the longest-running amateur soccer tournament in the country will take place at the Gelvan soccer fields from Friday to Monday.<\/p>\n

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Port Elizabeth soccer team Westlake will be back to defend their title in the SPAR Northern Areas Football Association Easter tournament this weekend. Photo: Supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Involving 48 age-group teams from U11 to U20, as well as 20 senior teams, the proceedings will reach a climax when the main final is played at the Gelvan Stadium on Monday at 3.30pm.<\/p>\n

Brink said everything was on track for another bumper weekend of soccer, adding that the SPAR sponsorship played a critical role in enabling them to deliver a quality product.<\/p>\n

“Their involvement in the last two years has been a massive boost for the tournament, ensuring that we can go from strength to strength in providing a memorable experience for all,” said Brink.<\/p>\n

He said an indication of how the tournament continued to flourish was the introduction of a U20 division involving eight teams this year.<\/p>\n

“This adds to the five sections we have from U9 to U17 so we are able to cater for players of all ages.”<\/p>\n

SPAR Eastern Cape promotions and advertising manager Alan Stapleton said they were delighted to be part of one of the largest amateur events in the country.<\/p>\n

“It is great to be involved with a tournament with 43 years of heritage and tradition,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is also good to work with Nafa, a body who seek to foster, promote and develop soccer in the region.<\/p>\n

“Furthermore, this tournament offers opportunities for junior, age-group and senior players, tying in with SPAR’s commitment to contribute to the community.<\/p>\n

Stapleton said core SPAR values such as entrepreneurship within the framework of a team, passion, family and a healthy lifestyle were all embodied by the tournament in one way or another.<\/p>\n

He placed special emphasis on the company’s belief in family values.<\/p>\n

“This tournament is all about involving the whole family, while Nafa have a huge drive to keep children active in healthy environments.<\/p>\n

“Their motto – a child in sport is a child out of court – rings very true to us at SPAR.”<\/p>\n

Westlake from Port Elizabeth won the tournament last year and they will be back to defend their title.<\/p>\n

While the entry list comprises mostly Eastern Cape clubs, Brink said four teams would be travelling from the Western Cape to compete in the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Areas Football Association Easter tournament director Valentine Brink said they were gearing up for another high-quality festival of soccer when the event celebrated its 44th edition this weekend. Sponsored by SPAR Eastern Cape for the second year, the longest-running amateur soccer tournament in the country will take place at the Gelvan soccer fields from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1774,1775,2439,2440,2434,2435,1898,1759],"class_list":["post-4024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-eastern-cape","tag-eastern-cape-news","tag-gelvan-soccer-fields","tag-gelvan-stadium","tag-nafa-easter-tournament","tag-northern-areas-football-association-easter","tag-spar","tag-spar-eastern-cape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}