Peace Cup

The Peace Cup is a football (soccer) tournament organized by the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation [[1]], which was founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon the leader of the Unification Church. The eight-team event involves major professional clubs from different continents and is held every two years in South Korea. The tournament, which began in 2003, capatlized on South Korea's stunning performance at the 2002 World Cup which was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. The Peace Cup is designed to promote world peace and encourage professional teams to serve their community. All profits from the tournament are used to sponsor the Play Soccer Make Peace program [[2]] program, which is organized by the World Association for Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO), holds youth soccer events in over 35 countries in the developing world. In 2006 a women's tournament called the Peace Queen Cup was created, inviting 8 women's national teams from 5 continents.

Tournament Origins

The idea of the Peace Cup came form Rev. Moon's love for soccer and his desire to use sports to promote world peace. [[3]] Rev. Moon made his first official announcment concerning the tournament in Seoul, Korea on June 12, 2002 at the Art Center of the Little Angels School, in a speech titled "The Role of Sports in Creating World Peace". [[4]] "The Sun Moon Peace Cup will not only celebrate a healthy spirit of humanity," noted Rev. Moon. "As our spiritual nature continues to develop, it will become a festival of internal and external reconciliation and harmony within the world community. It will be a place where people unite in one mind, as one family, and in one heart, to open the way toward God's ideal of creation, a world of peace, freedom and happiness." The Sunmoon Soccer Foundation already had experinece in sponsoring soccer teams in Korea, including the highly successful professional team Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma [[5]] and the Sun Moon University team, as well as professional teams in Brazil - Cene [[6]] and Atletico Sorocaba [[7]]. Seongnam is the most successful team in the history of the K-League, South Korea's professional soccer league, with a record seven titles. Brazilian star Pele was a consultant in the initial planning of the first Peace Cup and spent time with the founder of the event in Irvington, New York in 2002. However, there was disappointment that Pele could not intice Brazilian team Sao Paulo to attend the inaugural event. Pele attended the final game of the 2003 Peace Cup.

Format

The Peace Cup is accredited with football's international governing body FIFA, and South Korea's Football Association. After two successful events, it is now one of the most prestigious and sought after soccer event for European clubs in the off-season. The competition is played between eight clubs, divided in two groups of four teams each. In the first stage, within their groups the teams play against each other once, and the winner of each group qualifies for the final, which is played in one single match. The groups are determined by a draw two months prior to the event. Each team is allowed six substitutions including the goalkeeper from a roster of 23 players.

Prize money

The prize money of the tournament, in both the 2003 and 2005 editions, is US$2,000,000 for the champion team and US$500,000 to the runner-up. Besides the champion trophy, three awards are presented: the Fair Play award to the team finishing first in the fair play contest; the Golden Shoe to the top goal scorer; and the Golden Ball, to the tournament's most valuable player voted by the attending media. Following the championship game at the 2005 event a check for US$1,000,000 was presented by Rev. Moon to the World Association for Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) to promote the Play Soccer Make Peace program. According to a tournament official, the 2005 event cost US$17,000,000 to stage.

The Peace Cup Trophy

The message of the tournament is captured in the image of three figures who, desiring to bring peace to the world, together hold the earth between them and leap skyward. (Height 36cm, bredth 12cm)

Emblem

The emblem of the Peace Cup takes a motif composed of the sun, the moon, and a human being. Together they form a human being exhilarated by football all over the world. The red as the sun expresses the passion of a human being. The yellow as the moon wishes the game would be played as a pure football festival of mankind, while the green repsents a human being with arms stretched represents peace the peace of mankind. It employs a strong will to unite people around the world into one and create a peaceful world through football.

Venues

The venues for the 2003 event which ran from July 15-July 22, were all used in the 2002 World Cup:

• Busan Asiad
• Daejeon Purple Arena
• Jeonju World Cup Stadium
• Seoul World Cup Stadium
• Suwon Bigbird Stadium
• Ulsan Big Crown Stadium

Tournaments

The 2003 event drew 339,651 fans for the 12 opening round games, including 51,578 to the opening game at the Seoul World Cup Stadium between Seongnam and Turkish club Besiktas.

Participating teams

2003 edition

Originally AS Roma (Italy), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) and São Paulo FC (Brazil) were scheduled to participate, but later withdrew.

Group A

• Besiktas of Turkey
• Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea
• Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa
• Olympique Lyonnais of France

Group B

• 1860 München of Germany
• Nacional of Uruguay
• Los Angeles Galaxy of the United States
• PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands

2005 edition

Group A

• Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea
• Olympique Lyonnais of France
• Once Caldas of Colombia
• PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands

Group B

• Boca Juniors of Argentina
• Real Sociedad of Spain
• Sundowns of South Africa
• Tottenham Hotspur of England

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Kim, Peter. "Triumph of the Il Hwa Soccer Team." Unification News. December 1995. p. 7.
• Cho, Jin-seo. "Lyon Advance to Final." The Korea Times. July 21, 2005. p. 20.
• Haydon, John. "Lyon, Tottenham to meet in final; French champion Olympique Lyon meets Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League tomorrow in the eight-team Peace Cup's championship game at World Cup Stadium." The Washington Times. July 23, 2005. p. C4.
• Haydon, John. "Peace Cup is latest goodwill event for sport". The Washington Times. July 15, 2003. p. C3.
• Haydon, John. "Dutch team, popular coach ousted in Cup." The Washington Times. July 21, 2005. p. C1.
• Haydon, John."Boca Juniors continue on road to recovery." The Washington Times. July 18, 2005. p. C2.
• Haydon, John. "Defending champs open with win." The Washington Times. July 17, 2005. p. D3.
• Haydon, John. "In soccer-crazy country, Seoul still yearning for club." The Washington Times. July 19, 2003. p. C6.
• Haydon, John. "S. Korea's ex-coach remains a hero." The Washington Times. July 18, 2003. p. C2.
• Haydon, John. "Team unwelcome until it won a title." The Washington Times. July 17, 2003. p. C6.
• Haydon, John. "World Cup Stadium is a symbol of Seoul's future." The Washington Times. July 16, 2003. p. C5.
• Cox, Gerry. "Mido Touch Suits Spurs." Daily Star. July 22, 2005. p. 68.
• Hills, David. "Viagra retailer Pele." The Observer. May, 9. 2004. p. 4.

List of champions

Year 2003 2005		Final
		Winner PSV Eindhoven Tottenham Hotspur	Score PSV Eindhoven 1 Olympique Lyonnais 0 Tottenham Hotspur 3 Olympique Lyonnais 0	Runner-Up Olympique Lyonnais (2003) Olympique Lyonnais (2005) Titles by team PSV Eindhoven 1 time Tottenham 1 time External links Peace Cup Official Website RSSSF Credits New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: Peace Cup  history The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia: History of "Peace Cup" Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.