The exclusive meet with the team was a culmination of 15 days of football celebrations that the company had held around the city. Coca-Cola Soccer Zones were set up in select colleges (IIM-Bangalore, VET College, Silicon City College, APS College, National College, NMKRV College); IT parks (Eco Space IT Park, Prestige Shanti Niketan IT Park, RMZ Infinity) and malls (Garuda Mall, Carrefour Cash & Carry Retail, Forum Value Mall) to encourage Bangaloreans to showcase their love for football. The lucky winners not only got a chance to meet the Bengaluru FC team but also got their photos clicked with the star players, received autographed footballs and happily took back a special edition Coke Can.
Puneet Varshney, Zonal Vice President, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd said, “Football is everyone’s sport and Coca-Cola is everyone’s beverage. The FIFA World Cup at Brazil 2014 provides the world’s leading beverage brand – Coca-Cola – an opportunity to help celebrate football as “Symbol of Happiness”. Our programs and initiatives around the football World Cup will leverage our existing partnerships in the arena of grassroots football as well as our global scale and local activations. While our association with football in India and across the world has been long standing, this gave us another opportunity to bring people together”
Commenting on his interaction with the fans and his experience at the Coca-Cola Soccer Club, Sunil Chhetri said, “The energy and vibe at this place is amazing. Seeing some of the tricks pulled off by fans with the football clearly shows that India doesn’t lack the skill or the enthusiasm. But this talent needs the right grooming and it has to be consistent. Coca-Cola has been doing a lot to facilitate the right training and grooming for aspiring footballers and I’m sure those efforts will one day culminate into Indian Football taking on the Asian giants, and finally shine on the world stage.”
