The Establishment of the Sun Moon Peace Cup Promotion Committee

The Establishment of the Sun Moon Peace Cup Promotion Committee Reverend Chung Hwan Kwak, Chairman of the Sun Moon Peace Cup Promotion Committee, held an exposition conference in Seoul, Korea, for the purpose of founding the Committee on the afternoon of June 12, 2002 at the Art Center of the Little Angels¡¯ School, in the presence of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Founder of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and approximately 500 distinguished guests from Korea and abroad.

During this time Chairman Moon, who owns and operates the prominent Il Hwa Soccer Team in Sung Nam, Korea, and the Sorocaba Soccer Team in Brazil, announced that the Sun Moon Peace Cup game will be played in Korea in July 2003 from among all continents throughout the world.

The Sun Moon Peace Cup is being established with the purpose of realizing world peace through soccer games, transcending the barriers of ideologies and religions, with the support of "Pele, the Emperor of Soccer," who formerly served as the Minister of the Sports Department in Brazil, the FIFA and such.

The Sun Moon Peace Cup, which will debut next year, is projected to become a worldwide event, reviving the heat-wave-like spirit of soccer games followed by the 2002 World Cup game with the joint sponsorship of Korea and Japan now in progress amidst the enormous enthusiasm and interest throughout Korea and everywhere. Further, it is expected to draw a lot of attention as a gigantic event, able to utilize new stadiums currently well-known to the world through the 2002 World Cup game.

Currently, international soccer games are placed into two categories: nation-to-nation matches and club-to-club matches. Examples for the former are the Olympic games and the World Cup games (strictly speaking, this refers to the matches among each nation¡¯s soccer committees). On the other hand, international, professional soccer teams represent the latter. The Sun Moon Peace Cup game will adopt the category of professional team games for the championship, sponsoring the game every three years. Its participants will represent 7 continents: South America, North America, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Korea being an automatic and regular participant as the sponsoring nation. The Sun Moon Peace Cup Promotion Committee is now thinking of establishing a joint team between South Korea and North Korea.

At the present time, a clear decision has not yet been reached as to whether one club team or a unified club team will represent each continent. However, an agreement has been reached as to the principle of forming the #1 team from each continent. Thus, 8 teams will compete for the championship of the world.

Participating teams, representing each continent, will be finalized by Pele Promotions, Inc. (Renaro Duporaro Pilo, President) led by Pele, with the support of the FIFA. To the champion of the Sun Moon Peace Cup game, $2.5 million (approximately W3 billion) will be awarded, which will shoulder the Toyota Cup game in Japan (Europe vs. South America club games), attracting national and worldwide attention. Further, the Sun Moon Peace Cup game will be an event that will actualize the purpose and meaning of "Peace," through contributing its entire profits to children who are suffering from starvation in Asia and Africa.

Chairman Moon disclosed that preceding the announcement of the founding of the Committee, he had a meeting with former Minister Pele, during which time he explained that the purpose and goal of founding the Sun Moon Peace Cup game is to realize world peace through sports, especially through soccer games among all continents of the world, and that he personally requested Pele to promote it in each nation of the world. In response to this, the former minister expressed his full support, saying: "If I can be of any assistance in the promotion of world peace through soccer games, I am willing and ready to go anywhere in the world!"

Chairman Moon continued: "Since 1989, when I established the Il Hwa Professional Soccer Team in Sung Nam, I additionally established the Sorocaba Soccer Team and the Cene Soccer Team, currently managing all of them with success. And in the future, I will strive to establish college football teams as well."

Hence, the Sun Moon Peace Cup game is likely contributing not only to developing the skills and techniques of foreign professional soccer teams but also in enhancing the power and abilities of domestic soccer teams.