The Minsk European Games Organising Committee (MEGOC) unveiled its Bright Team project on Monday, aimed at getting the public more aware of, involved in, and excited about the 15 sports on the programme for next year’s European Games Minsk 2019.
The Bright Team initiative will start on 1 August with a beach soccer match at the new beach soccer complex built specifically for the Games inside the Olympic Sports Complex. Of the 12 venues to be used during the Games from 21-30 June 2019, only the beach soccer facility is new, making it a highly sustainable event.
Six teams will participate in the tournament: a MEGOC “Bright Team,” a team made up of candidates who have applied to become volunteers at the European Games, a team of journalists and employees from Belarusian TV-Radio company, a team from The Second National TV channel, a team of employees from the "Slavnaya" water company, and a team of Belarusian “Art-Stars.” Referees from the Belarus Beach Soccer Federation will officiate the tournament. Each match will be 20 minutes in duration (two periods of 10 minutes with a break of five minutes).
Anatol Kotau, Deputy CEO of the 2nd European Games Minsk 2019, will officially launch the Bright Team project. The Bright Beach Soccer tournament will begin at 18:00 with a musical performance by the band Litesound, one of the five artists still in the running to have their song chosen as the theme song for the Minsk 2019 Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The event will conclude at 21:00.
The Bright Team project aims to involve the people of Belarus in friendly sporting encounters and to draw public attention to the Games, which will feature the following sports: 3x3 basketball, archery, athletics, badminton, beach soccer, gymnastics, boxing, canoe sprint, cycling, judo, karate, sambo, shooting, table tennis and wrestling. Ten of the 15 sports will act as qualifiers for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, with the European Games also counting as the official European championships for four sports.
The Bright Beach Soccer Tournament is scheduled to take place only two days ahead of the first test event for the 2nd European Games, the fourth stage of the Euro Beach Soccer League, which will be held at the new beach soccer venue from 3-5 August. In total, 22 test events for the Games will be held.
The Bright Team project takes its name from the official Minsk 2019 motto “Bright Year, Bright You,” which is based on the letters BY, the first two letters, phonetically, that make up the word Belarus and also the Internet country code domain for the nation.
