NAIROBI, Nov 23 – The Fifa World Cup trophy drew record crowds in Tanzania over the weekend with over 30,000 fans turning up at The New National Stadium in Dar-es-Salaam last Saturday wher eteh trophy was hosted.
An estimated 6,900 fans also had an opportunity to take photos with the trophy, which also made a visit into Zanzibar where another 1,000 fans got an opportunity for photos with the trophy.
The Trophy arrived in Tanzania on November 20 and was received by President Jakaya Kikwete.
With the Tanzanian visit, the trophy concludes its East African tour and will now be visiting nine other countries including; Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho from where it proceeds to South Africa – hosts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™ tournament.
The 70-day, 52 nation African tour commenced in Cairo, Egypt on 24th September, 2009 and more than 100,000 people have gotten the once-in-lifetime opportunity to interact and take photos with the real, solid gold trophy.
The tour has been developed through an exclusive partnership between FIFA and Coca-Cola.
On December 3, 2009, the first leg of the tour draws to a close in Cape Town, South Africa, near the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals draw. The second leg of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola will see the trophy visit additional countries across the globe from January to April 2010.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup Trophy draws on the huge success of the first global Trophy Tour held in 2006. In 2006, the tour visited 31 cities in 29 countries, covering 63,734 miles (102,570 kilometres) with millions of fans around the world enjoying the chance to have a closer look at football’s most famous prize.
The trophy is awarded to the winning nation at each tournament. The iconic trophy measures 36.8 centimeters (14.5 inches) high, weighs in at 6,175 grams (13.61 pounds) and is made of solid, 18-carat gold. The winners retain it until the next tournament and are awarded a replica that is gold-plated, rather than solid gold.
The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite, while the bottom side of the Trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974.