• Submitted by: manso
• Sports
• 10 / 08 / 2010

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2010.10.07 - 18:22:41 / [email protected]. HAVANA, Cuba. - The International Football Federation (FIFA) will donate a synthetic turf football field to Cuba to mark the 100th anniversary of the first time the sport was practiced in the island, announced Thursday Rigoberto Aragon, vice president of the National Football Association.

Aragon told ACN that the artificial turf will be installed in La Polar stadium and will be an acknowledgment to the Cuban football which is going undergoing a restructuring process aimed at increasing its quality and achieve good results on the international arena.

The donation will act as incentive to the local players who have a lot of potential and are in good physical conditions so as to achieve better results.

 “We are eager for having important outcomes; it is a difficult challenge that takes a lot of work, but we are optimistic and have the aptitude to attain it,” he said.

The sports official said Cuba will implement a broad program of activities to mark the centenary of the practice of that sport in the island, including the setting up of a website, the creation of logos identifying each provinces and the printing of stamps.

Aragon said FIFA president Joseph Blatter, from Switzerland, will travel to Havana for the celebration of the date.

In Cuba, the first official football match was played on December 11 of 1911 between the Hatuey and Rovers teams in the Palatino field, which doesn’t exist at present and used to be located in the municipality of Cerro in Havana.

Source: ACN