Hjørring IF became the best placed Danish U14 boys team at the Dana Cup and therefore are ready to represent Denmark in the MTG United for Peace Cup even though they lost the final to Chivas from Mexico.
The trainer for Hjørring IF, John Helledie, said after the final: “This is fantastic. We have lost the final but it is great to have won this trip. The boys are looking forward to it immensely.”
The Dana Cup in Hjørring on Nordjylland is the biggest youth football tournament in Denmark and one of the biggest of its kind in the world with 42 nations represented.
But Dana Cup is much more than just football. It is about bringing children together across cultures and backgrounds; the social demention of football. It is about all the voluntees and about collecting used football kit and equipment for the children in Haiti. In all, the Dana Cup stands for the same values and wishes for the future as MTG United for Peace does.
TV3+’s well known Onside host and former world champion badminton player, Camilla Martin, handed over the MTG prize to the team:
"Although it is a long time since I played under 14´s in badminton, I remember how much it meant for me to come out and play against other children of the same age. Sport is fantastic from a social point of view and I am therefore very happy to give the young soccer players from Hjørring IF a lifetimes experience by sending them to Oslo to play at the MTG United for Peace. The tournament, apart from the sporting side of things, also has an important agenda and goals", says Camilla Martin.
"Sport is a number one priority for Viasat and MTG. Not only is there a lot of sports entertainment in our programs but also within our company, there is played a lot of sports in the workplace. We know that sport gives some great experiences, regardless of age whether if you are a participant or a spectator. Therefore, it is only natural for us to support a tournament like the Dana Cup and also hold our own sporting activities. We look forward to following Hjørring IF in the tournament in Oslo,” says Head of Sport at Viasat, Peter Nørrelund.
MTG United for Peace are arranging local youth tournaments for children from troubled backgrounds, in the age group 12-14, in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Ghana will be represented by Right to Dream and Denmark by Hjørring IF. Trials will also be held in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Russia and Hungary. Teams for MTG United for Peace Cup will also be selected from Sweden and Norway.