PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia will showcase its diverse population this fall with the Philadelphia International Unity Cup, a soccer tournament featuring 32 teams representing the home countries of area residents. Representatives from the city’s Bhutanese community have already said count them in.
While players will be representing different nations, organizers say the event is meant to bring together people from the city’s varied, and sometimes insular, ethnic enclaves.
“Two things that unify people are sports and food,” said Bill Salvatore, the leadership and organization development manager for the city’s Parks and Recreation department. “If you get people on the athletic field playing together, and they bring their fans and their flags and their foods, that’s all you need.”
The tournament is the brainchild of Mayor Jim Kenney, who was sworn into office in January.
Carlos Giralt-Cabrales, the Mexican consul representing Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, praised the initiative.
“This is a great way to start the administration of Mayor Kenney, using sports to unite communities and start a new era,” said Giralt-Cabrales, who said, not unexpectedly, that he would be pulling for Mexico’s team in the tournament. “Soccer is the national sport of Mexico. You will have a lot of men and women who will want to play.”
Tim Hampson, president of the city’s 5,000-player CASA Soccer League, said he’s seen how soccer can break barriers. In the 10 years the all-volunteer nonprofit adult amateur league has been around, Hampson has met many new immigrants on the soccer field.
“Some of them don’t even speak English. It’s ’I can speak with my feet, let me go play soccer. Let me show you what I can do with a ball,’ ” he said. “I’ve played with guys over the years who have become leaders for their communities. “
The 32 teams will be divided into eight brackets of four teams each and play in a multiround elimination tournament. Games will be played on fields citywide over three weekends in September and October. The final two teams will face off in November at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Salvatore, whose department is organizing the event with the city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, is confident the tournament will attract enough teams.
One of the first public planning meetings drew more than 30 people representing potential teams from Indonesia, Sudan, Argentina, Ukraine and the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Two more planning meetings will be held before the tournament is officially announced in mid-April.
“We’re hearing we’ll have way more than 32 teams, so we’re accepting them on a first-come, first-served basis,” he said.
Immigrants from Bhutan, a South Asian nation on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, are planning to field a team. Two community representatives attended the first planning meeting.
“Bhutan will likely never be in the FIFA World Cup, but they’re going to play in this local world cup and that’s huge,” Salvatore said. “I don’t think we’ve ever done anything of this magnitude before. It’s going to be phenomenal.”
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