Press Release No. 113-03
27 March 2003
DFA
AND PACLAS ORGANIZE COPA AMÉRICA UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT IN
MAY
The Department of Foreign Affairs in coordination with the Philippine Academic
Consortium for Latin American Studies (PACLAS) is organizing a football tournament
which will aim to promote the awareness of Latin America, as well as the world’s
most popular sport, football, among Manila’s studentry.
The embassies of six Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, will sponsor the varsity teams of the Ateneo de
Manila University, the De La Salle University, the University of Asia and
the Pacific, the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo
Tomas, all of which are members of PACLAS.
Conversely, the university football teams will represent the country of
their sponsoring embassy during the tournament.
The PACLAS Copa América organizing committee has invited a guest
team, the reigning UAAP champions, University of the East, to join the competition.
Matching the colors of each university and to the national team jerseys
of the participating countries; Ateneo (blue) will represent Argentina; La
Salle (green), Mexico; UA&P (red), Chile; UE (red), Venezuela; UP (red),
Peru; and UST (yellow), Brazil.
PACLAS Copa América will consist of a 19-game round robin competition
which will be played every weekend starting 03 May 2003 in the football fields
of Ateneo, La Salle, UP and UST. The presentation of the game schedule
will be held on 26 April 2003 in UST, while the championship game will held
on 07 June 2003.
The Philippine Football Federation and the National Capital Region Football
Federation are working hand-in-hand and will provide professional referees
to ensure the tournament’s success.
Chaired by the University of Santo Tomas, PACLAS was established on 20 November
2003 through the signing of an MOU, witnessed by Secretary Blas Ople, at the
Deparment of Foreign Affairs. Two other PACLAS members are the Foreign
Service Institute and NEDA´s Philippine Institute for Development Studies,
which has established the consortium’s webpage at www.paclas.org.ph.
PACLAS aims to promote the awareness and study of Latin America, a vibrant
and culturally diverse sub-continent of some 500 million people with which
the Philippines shares a common historico-cultural legacy.
END