Consuls kick off in the heat
The V4 Football Tournament kicked off in Baoshan District on Saturday with eight teams battling it out in the heat.
Teams were from the Consulates Generals of Slovak Republic, Hungary and the Czech Republic, joined by players from VFS Group and local businesses.
The tournament was organized by the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in Shanghai, with the aim to promote the Slovak Presidency of the Visegrád Group, a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries – Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.
They hold cultural, sports, tourism, economy and education activities every year and from July 2018 to June this year, the Slovak Republic holds the Presidency.
Ivana Vala Magatova, Slovak Consul General in Shanghai, said the tournament was not just a game of football but a cultural exchange between different countries and peoples. Shanghai has always been a city that values cultural exchanges, she said, and hopefully the game could be a key to open up more cooperation among different countries.
Ivana Vala Magatova came to Shanghai in 2010 as commissioner general of the Slovak pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. She remembered the expo motto “Better City, Better Life” and said that when she came back as Consul General, Shanghai had lived up to that motto.
“It has become a completely new town,” Ivana Vala Magatova said. “Especially the IT technology and transportation.”
The first V4 football tournament last year was proposed by Hungarian consulate. Szilárd Bolla, Consul General of Hungary, who played as an attacking midfielder, said football is an universal language that unites people despite their nationalities.
Szilárd Bolla said game was to let more people know about the culture of Central Europe – V4. “Shanghai is the most Hungarian city in China,” he said with a chuckle, moreover the first direct flight from Shanghai to Budapest, Hungary’s capital starts regular operations in June.
The tournament finished with the Shanghai Daily team taking the crown, and the Hungarian and the Czech Republic teams winning second and third place.
Richard Krpac, Consul General of the Czech Republic, said his team ranked third in the tournament. But he hoped it would get a better place next time as the Czech Republic would then hold the V4 Presidency.