KUNMING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Eight teams have made it to the finals of the first Minority Football Tournament in Yunnan province after three months of fierce competition completed the qualifying matches on Sunday.
Starting from mid-March, the qualifying tournament has witnessed a total of 514 teams with 13,091 footballers playing for a stunning total of 1,136 games for an audience of more than 400,000 people.
These players are mainly ethnic minorities. Among those finalists are Dehong, Lijiang, Pu'er, Qujing and Yunnan MinZu University teams.
"I've brought in our minority musical instrument, Dragon Head Zither, to the arena since it's a special soccer match for our ethnic minorities, and I'm very happy to show you our minority culture," said Xu Guohong, a member of the zonal champion team of Wenshan.
"Through soccer matches, we have deepened our mutual understanding with our minority teams in different cities," said Zhu Chong, head coach of the Wenshan team with 11 minority members.
The Minority Football Tournament is being joint hosted by the Yunnan Provincial Sports Bureau and the China Football Development Foundation. Enditem
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