Pride but no prejudice as nations old and new kick off community World Cup festival

THEIR country may only have been a day old, but footballers from South Sudan wasted no time in rallying to the flag by representing their nation in an alternative world cup yesterday.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Jul 2011, 09:26 BST

The Hull and East Yorkshire World Cup brings together many of the different communities living in East Yorkshire and featured 32 different nations in a six-a-side tournament at Hull’s Bonus Arena, which was organised by the Hull-based Goodwin Development Trust.

South Sudan manager William Duku said: “We are incredibly proud to be officially recognised as a nation and are overjoyed to be making our international debut at the Goodwin World Cup, the biggest event of its kind in the UK.”

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Countries represented included England, China, Brazil, Scotland, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Albania, Algeria, Turkey, Poland, Iran, Romania, Slovakia, Angola, Ghana, Lithuania and Afghanistan.

The event also featured a music festival while the tournament itself had its own song – We’re all in the World Cup – composed by Ted Key, a former member of Hull group The Housemartins. Some of the players sang the chorus on a recording of the song.

The Republic of South Sudan was born on Saturday, becoming Africa’s 55th and the world’s 196th country.

Related topics:PrideHullEast Yorkshire