On 24th August, 12 outstanding youth teams from China and the West, more than 400 players, coaches and referees gathered in the spring city of Kunming, where Yu Hongying, Deputy Director of the Yunnan Provincial Sports Bureau, announced the official opening of the La Liga Hope Cup China (Kunming), which attracted close to 1,000 spectators from all over the country, and the enthusiastic Yunnan people greeted the team’s arrival with a uniquely charismatic folk dance.
The tournament is the La Liga Youth Championship that has been held continuously since the establishment of La Liga, with a history of nearly 40 years, more than 10,000 youth players have participated in it, and the global attention crowd has reached hundreds of millions of people, and it has become one of the most important youth football tournaments of the U12-U16 age group in the world. 2019 the tournament will go out of Spain for the first time and land on the Asian continent, settling in Kunming, China.
The 3rd La Liga Hope Cup China (Kunming) is a large-scale international youth tournament organised by the Chinese Football Association as the guiding unit, La Liga as the tournament consultant unit, hosted by the Sports Bureau of Yunnan Province and the People’s Government of Kunming, and undertaken by the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Kunming, the Bureau of Education and Sports of Kunming, and the China Sports Future Investment (Beijing) Co. People’s Government of Kunming, Kunming Social Sports Guidance Centre, Kunming Football Association, Kunming Sports School, Yunnan Hongta Sports Centre co-sponsored a large-scale international youth tournament, the tournament also got the official equipment sponsor Puma, media partner live bar, new media partner Ned Yu said, sports industry independent review of the strong support.
A total of five teams from La Liga and seven local Chinese youth teams are participating in the tournament, namely Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla, Real Betis, Osasuna, Villarreal, who are leading the development of youth training in China, and the Yunnan Football Association, the Henan Football Association, the Hubei Football Association, the Jiangsu Football Association, the Chongqing Football Association, the Shandong Taishan Football Club and the Evergrande Football School. 12 teams will compete in 26 matches in the group and knockout phases between 24 and 28 August. The 12 teams will play a total of 26 matches in the group and knockout stages between 24 and 28 August to determine their place in the tournament, which will be played by the Hubei Provincial Football Association, the Jiangsu Provincial Football Association, the Chongqing Municipal Football Association, the Shandong Taishan Football Club and the Evergrande Football School. The La Liga Hope Cup China (Kunming) was won by FC Barcelona and Real Betis in 2019 and 2023 respectively, and the winner of this year’s edition is also highly anticipated.
Juan José Herrera, Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of Spain in China, said in his speech: ‘This tournament is an outstanding example of friendship and co-operation between China and the West, and thus establishes a platform for the exchange of sports and culture between China and the West. Gavi, who currently plays for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team, is also taking part in the tournament in 2019. The Embassy of Spain in China has always been committed to promoting cultural exchanges between the people and governments of China and the West, as well as supporting cooperation between the sports industries of the two countries, of which the La Liga Hope Cup China (Kunming) is an exemplary project.’
Juan José Herrera, Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of Spain in China（Juan José Herrera de la Muela）
‘We are very pleased to see that the ‘La Liga Hope Cup’ has come to its third tournament, with more and more outstanding teams and players participating, sharing their football skills during the matches and exchanging each other’s culture off the field. The players experience a professional atmosphere, which paves the way for them to play at a higher level in the future. I have full confidence and expectations for the future of the La Liga Hope Cup.’ Sergi Torrents, Executive Director of La Liga Greater China, said.
Sergi Torrents, Executive Director of La Liga Greater China（Sergi Torrents）
Youth players from both countries will compete for the championship of the third ‘La Liga Hope Cup China (Kunming)’, and at the same time further deepen the relationship between China and the West through the exchange of games. During the opening ceremony, all the participants from the club players La Liga Club took an oath, promising to abide by the rules and actively promote sportsmanship during the tournament. After the opening ceremony, the opening game of the tournament in the defending champion Real Betis and the Hubei Provincial Football Association team to start, after intense competition, Real Betis 2-1 victory over the Hubei Football Association team, to achieve the tournament open the door.
The 26 matches of the 5-day tournament will be broadcast live on more than 20 platforms, including Xinhua News Agency’s Live Cloud, La Liga’s official Jitterbug, Weibo and Beili account, the official Weibo accounts of La Liga’s participating clubs, the Live Streaming Bar, Aiki Sports, Tencent News Sports, LeiSpeed Sports, Ball Island, Youku, LALIGA+, Palm Spring, Baidu, DooYu, Tiger’s Teeth, Dragon Ball, YY and so on. The teams participating in the ‘La Liga Hope Cup’ are representative of the youth training teams of both China and the West, which means that the participating players have the highest level of the same age group. What kind of performance will the potential young players give on the field? We’ll see!
Kunming is the world-renowned ‘Flower Capital of Spring City’ and an ideal destination for highland sports training. In recent years, Kunming has attracted many elite athletes from all over the world to gather in Kunming by building an event economy, constructing a sports town, promoting recreational sports, and promoting international exchanges.
There is a kind of life called Yunnan, a city with football attitude is in Kunming, La Liga Hope Cup has always followed the concept of excavation and discovery of the future stars of the football tournament, to build a new platform for the exchange and communication of domestic and international high-level youth football, to cultivate young football talents, and to promote the development of China’s sports industry. The future stars of football once again gathered in the spring city of Kunming, will further demonstrate the influence of the ‘La Liga Hope Cup China (Kunming)’ as a top international youth football tournament. The holding of La Liga Hope Cup is of great significance in highlighting the brand value of the ‘ Spring Cities’, and focusing on building a ‘Pearl of the Plateau, Green and Beautiful Spring City’ that is pleasant to live in.
The La Liga Hope Cup will further deepen the sports and cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and Spain, strengthen the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative with China-West-China-Europe industrial cooperation and humanistic exchanges, and further implement the ‘China-Europe Cooperation 2020 Strategic Plan’, promote the two sides in the field of sports, culture, health and other areas of deep-level cooperation, and provide assistance to the building of a community of human destiny. The construction of a community of human destiny to provide assistance.
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