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Unity Cup Plans Asian Expansion By Tunde Sulaiman The triangular Unity Cup tournament is likely to become a four-nation competition next year with plans by the organisers to bring in a team from Asia. Mr. Rotimi Pedro, the Chief Executive of OSMi, organisers of the very popular Unity Cup, said plans where on to see if Japan or China would accept to be part of the competition, that Nigeria's Super Eagles won last month. "We are seriously looking at bring in either Japan or China because both of them have a large number of their citizens living in London and as you know the aim of the Unity Cup is to unite minorities in the city through football." He said the fact that either one of them take part would also appeal to citizens from other Asian countries living in London to come to the stadium to watch the tournament. He expressed his satisfaction with the level of awareness the just concluded tournament raised amongst black and other minorities living in London and the fact that the even passed off without any incident. "There were fears that with the presence of the Jamaican national team that there may be some incidents from their fans and this is why the police designated the fixtures involving them as high risk games. But luckily no unsavoury incident took happened." Pedro was full of praise for Ireland, which he said skipped a trip to US in order to take part in the Unity Cup. He said OSMi was determined to keep the tournament going so long as it served its purpose. This year's edition which took place last month at The Valley, home of Premiership side Charlton Athletic, was aimed at helping the teams involved prepare for upcoming World Cup qualifier. Other countries that took part included Jamaica and Republic of Ireland. The Super Eagles beat both teams to lift the trophy, which put them in good stead for the Germany 2006 tie against Rwanda, which they eventually won 2-0. Ireland, which lost 3-0 to Nigeria in the opening match later beat Euro'2004 campaigners Holland 1-0 in another friendly to put them in shape for their own World Cup qualifiers which kick off in August. Before Unity Cup 2004, OSMi had organised a pre-Korea/Japan 2002 friendly for the Eagles against Jamaica. The match played at Loftus Road ended 1-0 in favour of the Super Eagles. Who Are We ? | About THISDAYOnLine.com | THISDAY People | Contact Us © Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited

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