(24 April 2006 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: With the football World Cup less than two months away one of Fifa's global partners Adidas has launched the Adidas+ Challenge.

The event is being rolled out across seven cities in the course of the next few weeks including Delhi, Goa and Mumbai. The initiative invites young Indian football enthusiasts to celebrate football in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup.

Partnering Adidas for the event are ESPN Star Sports, which will air the Fifa World Cup in India, beverage conglomerate Coca Cola, kids channel Hungama and mobile content provider Phoney Tunes, The event will culminate in a grand finale in Kolkata on 28 May, 2006.

As has already been reported by Indiantelevision.com, as is the case in each global tournament venue, participating teams under 16 years of age will play against each other in order to represent India for the global Adidas +Challenge final in Berlin, Germany from 1-4 July 2006.

Adidas India marketing director Hartwin Feddersen says, "We are the world's No.1 football brand. We constantly challenge ourselves to excite the youth through innovative products and extraordinary experiences. We hope that the Adidas +Challenge will allow Indian football enthusiasts to enjoy the spirit of team work and will challenge them to deliver their personal best at the same time through this innovative football initiative."

Speaking to indiantelevision.com Hungama TV marketing head Siddhartha Kapur says the channel is on on ground sponsor for the event. "We saw value in partnering as kids aged 4-14 are becoming increasingly interested in the game. We therefore did not want to lose out on the opportunity to gain good visibility across the country. Later on we will be airing vignettes from the event."


Coca Cola India GM G. Srinivas Krishna says,, "Coca-Cola is one of the longest-standing corporate partners of the Fifa World Cup since 1950. To energise this heritage with football and Fifa, we are proud to be associated with the Challenge event. The innovative initiative provides us with the ideal opportunity to bring the people of India closer together through football."

As the official partner, supplier and licensee of the 2006 Fifa World Cup, Adidas will supply hundreds of thousands of products for referees, ball boys, stewards, volunteers and flag bearers. In addition, the host Germany, Argentina, France, Japan, Spain and Trinidad & Tobago will be wearing adidas apparel. Some of the world's top players such as David Beckham, Michael Ballack, Steven Gerrard, Kaká, Juninho, Nigel de Jong, Zinédine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Raúl, Juan Román Riquelme, Alessandro Nesta and many more will play in Adidas footwear.

Coca-Cola on the other hand has had a long formal association with Fifa. The firm was the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup that began in 1978. To its credit, the company has had stadium advertising rights at every World Cup since 1950. This partnership in November 2005 was extended for another 16 years until 2022.

To find out more details and register for the event, enthusiasts will need to rush to their nearest Adidas Exclusive store, fill out a registration form, get it signed by a guardian and put it into a collection box at an Adidas store. Acceptance of entries closes four days before the start of the event in that city. The short-listed teams will be informed about their selection two days prior to the event. They will be sent a detailed kit on the rules and regulations along with the tournament match schedule.


The schedule for the Adidas Challenge is as follows

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