FC Barcelona’s academies distributed around the Asia Pacific zone are to meet for the second consecutive year for the Barça Academy Cup APAC, at which almost 500 boys and girls from 7 to 14 years of age will be gathering at Barça Academy Delhi NCR at the Heritage School, Gurgaon from January 30 to February 2, 2020. There will be a record number of countries involved, seven, namely Australia (Brisbane and Sydney), India (Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai), Japan (Fukuoka, Katsushika, Nara and Shinagawa Oimachi), Singapore, China (Chengdú), Turkey (Istanbul) and two guest teams from Barça Escola Barcelona.
The tournament features four different categories (U9, U11, U13 and U15) and are sure to bring a few days of cultural enrichment to the half thousand participants. The young athletes’ experience will also include several workshops in which they will be introduced to typical Indian traditions and will get to visit some of the most famous landmarks in the country, including the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, and the city of Jaipur.
As for the football, all of the different tournaments will be played 7-a-side, with 20-minute halves, apart from U15, which will be played as 25-minute halves.
The opening ceremony is on January 30 and will be attended in person by FC Barcelona board member Pau Vilanova; the worldwide director of the Barça Academy project, Carles Martín; and the Head of Barça Academy Asia Pacific, Carlos Palacín.
In parallel to the Barça Academy Cup APAC, the first edition of the Barça Academy India Cup will be going on, featuring players from the local schools in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai in U10, U12 and U14 age groups. All in all, there will be 700 players taking part in the event, which involves 63 different teams playing 162 matches.