Nigeria, Ghana host World Cup trophy

The world soccer ruling body, FIFA, and Coca-Cola have listed Nigeria and three other African countries for the World Cup trophy tour holding between January and April in 32 countries.

Though it is no longer news that Nigeria is among the countries taking part, the sponsors, Coca-Cola, on Friday released the full itinerary of the tour with four African countries listed.

Soccer followers in Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa will also have the opportunity of seeing the trophy at a close range.

The trophy will be in Accra between January 7 and 9 before moving to Lagos, Nigeria on January 10.

Marketing Director of Coca Cola, Anne Harte, said the trophy would leave Nigeria two days later and the next destination would be Dar es Salam, Tanzania.

After two days in the East African country, the trophy moves to South Africa on January 16 for another two- day tour of the former apartheid enclave.

The trophy leaves Johannesburg on January 18 to South America with Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Columbia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Paraguay listed as host countries.

Eight European countries are also on card for the tour. They are England, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Greece, Italy and host, Germany.

Harte said the target of the initiative was to further boost the excitement associated with every World Cup year.