74 more selected for final Areeba soccer draw

Accra, May 12, GNA - The final batch of 74 subscribers of Areeba cellular phone network on Friday won the company's raffle to travel to Germany to cheer the national soccer team, the Black Stars, at the FIFA World Cup tournament in June this year.

The draw was the final in a raffle aimed at rewarding 150 pre-paid customers and 50 post-paid clients with an all-expenses paid trip to cheer the Black Stars in Germany.

Mr Haitham Maged, Marketing Director of the Areeba Mobile Network, said extra winners had been selected in the final draw to compensate for subscribers who failed to secure visas for the trip.

He said a media campaign had also been launched to motivate the Black Stars and whip up enthusiasm among football fans towards the World Cup.

Mr Maged said the network had received authorisation as the Official Mobile Broadcaster for the 2006 World Cup in Ghana, adding that in the next few weeks, the company would launch a bouquet of World Cup-dedicated services for its subscribers.

He said the package would provide subscribers with near-live feed on World Cup events, the players and score-lines for the various matches, among others.

Mr Maged said the company had issued the previous winners with sponsorship letters to enable them to secure visas for the trip. Mr Amanor Dodoo, a representative of KPMG, a firm of International Chartered Accountants, which conducted the draws as event statisticians, said more than one million entries from recharging subscribers and newly activated lines were entered for the final draw.