It’s here…Noks City Soccer Festival Top 32 kicks off
Estimated reading time: 10 minute(s)
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Festive season is upon us and many will be traveling across various destinations to visit family and friends, but football lovers will descend in numbers to Nokaneng Stadium for the inaugural Noks City Soccer Festival Top 32 tournament. The soccer spectacular is the brainchild of the illustrious sport administrator Phodisho Dikobe. The cup competition starts on the 15th to the 30th of December 2023.
According to the hosts the tournament aims to unearth talent and provide opportunities to youngsters from Nokaneng and other surrounding villages of Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality to fulfil their dreams of playing in professional in the near future.
Dikobe who also heads the local organising committee said they were inundated with requests from different clubs willing to form part of their football festivities hence they opted to expand the pool.
“As Noks City we thought it was best to do away with the Top 8 competition because requests would reach our door step with interest of joining and we would end up with more teams but less slots, so we decided that it would be best to cancel the knockout challenge and focus mainly on the Top 16 and then reserve December season for a Top 32 which we hope it will be on annual basis. We have gauged that many people love taking part in our programmes so that is how we arrived at a conclusion of hosting in the 32 spectacular” she adds.
Phodisho also believes that the missing piece to their jigsaw puzzle is the Ladies Soccer and Netball.
“To be quite frank we will be happy if we can add Women’s football and Netball to our network. I also urge the community to help with ideas on the type of sport they believe can make a difference to the youth of our community. We are wary of the escalating statistics in relation to the use of drugs and alcohol. So by introducing sport we can at least assist in alleviating some of the socio-economic challenges especially around youth,” explains Dikobe.
The tournament is headlined by Mahlako A Tholo Events together with Circle Seven Trading 26 and Busachamone Integrated Services Company as other key stakeholders.
The 35-year-old says she hopes that the level of commitment they have shown to the people of Nokaneng and its nearby areas will yield positive results and attract more sponsors and also for the local municipality to recognise their efforts of creating a successful culture of participating in sport and arts activities.
The official draw was conducted last weekend at the field of dreams (Nokaneng Stadium). Big prizes will be handed over at the end of the instalment with the winners expected to pocket a coveted R100 000, a trophy, gold medals and a soccer kit. Runner’s up will settle for silver medals, soccer kit and R50 000 cash prize. Meanwhile, 3rd place finishers will take home R10 000, bronze medal and kit with 4th placed also scoring a soccer kit and R5 000.
With two days left before the start of the cup competition, a round of fixtures for the first weekend of football is released as follows.
| 15 December 2023 | Kick Off times |
| Black Vultures vs Amajeremane FC | 10:00 |
| Rap City vs Nkoko FC | 12:00 |
| Libangeni Sport Academy vs Marapyane All stars | 14:00 |
| Modimolle Juventus vs Russia FC | 16:00 |
| 16 December 2023 | |
| Bana Ba E Rata vs Dreamers FC | 10:00 |
| Young Stars vs Timberland FC | 12:00 |
| Marikana FC vs AmaZambia FC | 14:00 |
| Motswedi FC vs Black Poison | 16:00 |
| 17 December 2023 | |
| Heroes FC vs Modimolle Family | 10:00 |
| Okemos FC vs Kgositlile FC | 12:00 |
| Nompi Spurs vs Zone 6 | 14:00 |
| Lefisoane United vs Vuka Daki FC | 16:00 |
