The clubs Shakthar Donestk from Ukraine, Rapid Bucharest, Rosenborg from Norway and Brondby IF from Denmark, currently champion of the last edition, will be the luxury guests of the XXIV Maspalomas International Tournament, a competition “in which clubs that have won more than 50 titles in their respective national competitions have taken part” as commented  today by Ignacio Funes, sports director for the event, during the presentation ceremony held in  Hotel Dunas Vital Suites in the tourist resort.  This XXIV edition of the tournament will be held on January 17-19 in Maspalomas Municipal Stadium, a stadium which houses the best winter football tournament in Europe every year.  This 2007 edition includes three teams that have competed for European titles (one of them in the Champions League), and one team that was recently proclaimed champion of its national League.

The Shakthar Donetsk will arrive in Maspalomas as the favourite. The Ukrainian team competed during the first leg of the Champions League in the same group as Valencia and Rome.  Following its classification as third team in the group, it will compete in the sixteenth leg of the UEFA Cup. Brondby, from Denmark, who won the gold lighthouse award last year, and Rapid Bucharest, have competed in the second most important European competition.  The Rosenborg, fourth member of the group, will arrive in Gran Canaria after winning its twentieth League cup.  All four clubs competing against each other in Maspalomas have won some 50 titles in their respective national leagues, which is an important factor in evaluating the quality of the tournament.  Once again, as has been the custom for two years now, the competition will adopt the format of a minor league, with two games per team, and a series of rules that will enable suspense regarding the winner to be maintained up to the very last game. The competition times will be confirmed during the next few days, depending on the requests made by TV channels interested in re-transmitting the best European winter football tournament live. In all cases, the times for of the matches will coincide with the prime time TV slots in the countries of the teams taking part.

For the Mayoress of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, events such as the Maspalomas International Football Tournament are “essential for supporting the township’s image as a tourist resort”. In the words of Concepción Narváez,   “the objective this year is to strengthen our promotional activities in Scandinavia and start work in East Europe”.  These objectives will “be achieved to perfection with the teams competing this year”.  Mari Pino Torres, Councillor for Tourism of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, expressed her agreement with the above and said that the Maspalomas International Football Tournament had become quite “an event of reference” and an example  “of the intelligent use of the potential of sports as a promotion tool in the tourist sector.  Our intention is for the name Maspalomas to be identified with the practising of high-level sport, an objective that we have working on for quite some time now, with great success”.

For his part, Ángel López, alderman of the Tourist Department, said that the Borough Council had made an important effort with respect to sports infrastructures over the past two years, and commented that proof of this is that during the tournament “first-rate international facilities will be used, such as Maspalomas Municipal Stadium or pitches with latest-generation artificial turf in Maspalomas”, to be used as training fields, as well as the pitch of Las Burras, which has natural turf.