A black curtain falls in Chillan’s Plaza de Armas, and on the right of the official emblem for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015 appears the city’s own logo for the tournament.
Chillan, which staged matches at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2008, is the first of the eight host cities to present its logo for the competition and will be followed in the coming days by Talca, Concepcion, La Serena, Coquimbo, Puerto Montt and Vina del Mar. All of them have scheduled events throughout the month, each of which will be attended by local dignitaries, representatives of each region’s football clubs and by leading sporting figures.
Presiding over the presentation in Chillan, which emphasised the importance of local communities in an increasingly global world, was the city’s mayor Sergio Zarzar. Expressing his delight that the city has been given the opportunity to show the world what it has to offer, Zarzar said: “We are happy and proud that the World Cup is being played on our pitch. This logo, which will go out to the world, reflects our identity and the values we hold as a municipality.
“We have sought to provide an overall vision of Chillan, which is why we have chosen iconic images such as the guitar player of Quinchamali, our pitch, the Nuble River, the snowy peaks overlooking the city, and the sun – represented by a football – which brings us joy in the shape of the 2015 U-17 World Cup.”
Showcasing Chile’s treasures
Generating an estimated 5,800 hours of coverage and a potential audience of nearly 200 million, Chile 2015 will be broadcast to 192 countries. Each of the tournament’s 52 games will be preceded on the international feed by a short film about the host city in question. With 95 per cent of the games being played in Chile’s provinces, the competition is a golden opportunity to promote tourism and investment in the host regions.
The main criteria in the design of the regional logos was that they should reflect the characteristics of each city. Along with the trophy-based official emblem, they will be present at all the events organised by each municipality as part of Chile 2015, the aim being to encourage local people to play sport.
“We want whole families to come along and enjoy this wonderful event and we want to see more and more sport being played in each region,” commented Carlos Honorato, the executive director of the Chile 2015 Local Organising Committee. “We want our spectators to love their sport.”
The tournament, which runs from 17 October to 8 November 2015, will bring together 504 players representing the top 24 national teams in the world, making it the biggest football tournament Chile has ever staged in logistical terms.
“This national event will allow us to promote sport and family access to it in places that do not often stage events like this or experience the excitement of a World Cup,” said the Regional Minister for Sport, Alvaro Miguieles.