BICA / Pricewaterhousecoopers Soccer Tournament a success

The annual soccer tournament sponsored by Pricewaterhousecoopers and coordinated by the Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants was a major success. The tournament took place on Saturday 02 August 2008 at the University of Botswana (UB) Stadium. It was always going to be a well-organized soccer extravaganza, with FIFA rules as adopted by Botswana Football Association being fully applied.

Being a six-a-side tournament, it featured eleven men’s teams and seven women’s teams, and the matches were surely going to be action-packed. The games eventually kicked off at 0800a.m. as a number of football fanatics trickled into the stadium to have a first-hand account of the day’s events. It was the men’s teams that took to the field and the women’s teams were to taste action just around lunchtime.

The men’s teams were in an uncompromising mood to outdo each other and in the process, the games produced an avalanche of goals. The games ended with four teams booking themselves a place in the semifinals.

Just after the lunch break, the women’s teams took to the field. It was an interesting affair as by this time many fans were already inside the stadium, proving the popularity of the football game. Just like their male counterparts, the women’s games also produced a number of goals, although in some instances the respective goalkeepers could have done better. At the end, four teams eventually booked their semifinal berths.

The semifinals for both the men and women’s teams produced some nail biting action and some classic goals. At the end, MVA Fund had booked a place for themselves in the much-anticipated final clash against a resurgent Grant Thornton in the men’s category. In the women’s category the skillful PWC 2 were to face a stubborn Cash Bazaar.

The finals were played under floodlights, and in the women’s category PWC managed to overcome their opponents, Cash Bazaar. In a closely contested affair in the men’s decider, MVA Fund overcame the odds and beat their archrivals Grant Thornton.  

The games ended just around 08:00pm. This paved the way for the prize giving ceremony, and after a short speech of acknowledgement by the BICA representative Vijay Kalyanaraman, it was time for the presentation of medals and trophies. A floating trophy and some gold medals went the way of champions in both categories, and the losing finalists took home a floating trophy and some silver medals.

Oupa Gaofise
BICA Secretariat