FIFA World Cup trophy tour skips Kigali

AFTER hosting it in October, 2009, Rwandans won’t have a closer look at  the FIFA World Cup trophy for the second time despite the fact that this year’s is the longest global tour which will cover 88 countries.

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

AFTER hosting it in October, 2009, Rwandans won’t have a closer look at  the FIFA World Cup trophy for the second time despite the fact that this year’s is the longest global tour which will cover 88 countries.The 2013 tour is part of the 267-day globe-trotting journey of the 6.175Kg 18 carrat trophy which began its journey in Brazil at Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro City on November 1.In Africa, the trophy will kick off its 20-day tour, when it enters the continent through Egypt (Nov 14-16) then proceeds to Tunisia, Algeria and finally ends its North African tour in Morocco.After Morocco (Nov 23-24), the cup will head to Ghana (Nov 25-26) then to Kenya (Nov 27-28) and Tanzania (Nov 29-30) en-route to South Africa and back to Brazil where it is expected on December 6.The last time the trophy visited Rwanda was back in 2009 ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa.President Paul Kagame was the only personality who touched the trophy as a mammoth of fans only had a privilege of taking photos with the trophy which was designed in 1974 after the original one was stolen in Brazil.