Guinness Cameroon on the road to Anfield.
By Joseph Roland Djotie
Guinness Cameroon SA, one of Cameroon’s prominent brewing companies, knocked down its opponents after a local tournament between 14 teams, last February 18, 2017 in Douala, and won the cup which allows it to move to phase 2 of the “Standard Chartered Bank 2017 Trophy – Road To Anfied”, which will be played in Ghana in March 2017.
Guinness Cameroon is already seeing itself in the final of the “Standard Chartered Trophy 2017 – Road to Anfield”, with the award trophy in Anfield in the United Kingdom. And rightly so, because on Saturday, February 18, 2017 at the Kadji Sport Academy (KSA) Sports Complex of Douala, the company which is active in the brewing industry in Cameroon, manhandled its opponents, after a highly disputed local tournament. A victory which allowed it to win the Phase 1 Cup of the “Standard Chartered Bank 2017 Trophy”, to the detriment of Orange Cameroon which came 2nd, after the penalty shootouts. The “Standard Chartered Trophy – Road to Anfield 2017” is an international football tournament organized by the Standard Chartered Bank, the official sponsor of the Liverpool Football Club, including a qualifying tournament that takes place in selected markets in advance by the Standard Chartered Bank Group, a regional competition and the final which will be played in Anfield at the end of May 2017. The “SC Trophy” is in its fifth edition in the Standard Chartered Group.
Organized for the first time by the Cameroon subsidiary, phase 1 of the competition consisted of 14 teams. These include ADDAX PETROLEUM, BRASSERIES OF Cameroon, Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL), CANAL2 International, ENEO, GUINNESS CAMEROON, MTN-CAMEROON, ORANGE CAMEROON , Radio Sport Info (RSI), SONARA, TOTAL CAMEROON and TRADEX SA, as well as the employees of the Standard Chartered Bank. The teams, The SUN gather were only made up of employees working full-time in these different companies, in accordance with the general conditions governing their participation in the competition, also known as “Discovery of Anfield”.
Before the kick-off oh the competition last Saturday 18 February 2017 , on the KSA fields, the Deputy General Manager of Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon, Anna Asonganyi , quickly recalled the conditions of the tournament, inviting all the teams to give their best. “The objective of this competition is to reinforce the trust that exists between the bank and its customers”, she said. The kick-off was given by the Deputy General Manager of the company in person, around 10:20 am. And of the 14 teams in competition, that of Canal 2 International was the first to score a goal at about 10:43 am. Several other goals were scored, after that, by teams such as ENEO, Total Cameroon, Les Brasseries du Cameroun and RSI. However, the crossing of the 8th final was not obvious for everyone.
If teams such as ENEO, SABC or RSI easily found themselves at the quarter-finals, others like Canal 2 International, Orange Cameroon and others really had to work harder, in order to get their pass ticket. Thanks to the encouragements of the fan clubs of the various companies present, some players were able to compete with real professionals of football such as Lionel Messi, Maradona, Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldo. That was the case of a brave lady playing for ENEO, or the strikers of the Breweries of Cameroon, or Canal 2, whose prowess on the field reminded the public of the playing techniques of these renowned footballers. Under the watchful eye of the Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon’s Deputy GM, Anna Asonganyi, the teams qualified for the quarter-finals successively gave their best , so as to reach the semi-final and the final.
Only Orange Cameroon and Guinness Cameroon could cross the semi-final after respectively eliminating their opponents, in order to play the final which lasted fifteen minutes (a match of 10 min, plus 5 min of break). After a very difficult final, both teams were separated by the penalty shoot-outs. A stage which enabled Guinness Cameroon to win the cup of phase 1 of the “Standard Chartered Bank 2017 Trophy”, and to qualify for Phase 2 of the regional finals in Ghana, which will take place on 11 March 2017, and which will be played between the winners of the respective tournaments of Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. “The winner of the regional competition will represent West Africa at the Anfield final in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2017,” says Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon’s Deputy GM , Anna Asonganyi, who recalls that this competition provides the Standard Chartered Bank a platform to actively engage football fans, to strengthen the partnership of the bank with the Liverpool FC football club, its customers, its staff and its business partners through sporting activities. In short, to offer everyone an experience that “Money can not buy”, The Sun gathered.
It should be noted that the 07 winners of GUINNESS Cameroon benefit from an all-expenses paid trip to Ghana to participate in a regional tournament. In case of a victory, they will be offered a unique experience, namely an all-expenses paid trip to the United Kingdom to: visit the home base of Club Liverpool FC in Anfield; Watching a Liverpool FC vs Middlesbrough match live in Anfield; Attend professional training sessions at LFC Academy with the Liverpool Club Legends; visit the Melwood Tour site, the Beatles museum site, etc.
