The deputy for Sports, José Antonio García and the head of the Sports area of the Vera City Council, Alfonso García, accompanied by the president of the Levante Almeriense Peoples Basketball Club (CB UPLA) Rafael Franco, presented this morning at the Provincial Palace from Navarro Rodrigo street in Almería, the IV National Basketball Tournament U13, which will be held from April 29 to May 2 at the Blas Infante Pavilion in Vera.
The mayor of Vera, Alfonso García, thanked the Diputación for its support of the sporting event and highlighted the role of all the sponsors and collaborators “because thanks to them and their contribution it has been possible to consolidate the Vera tournament as a national benchmark, where all the big teams want to come”. In the same way, García has valued “the great work of the UPLA in the organization of the tournament that turns the town year after year into the capital of grassroots basketball at a national level”. In this sense, García has highlighted “the great projection that this competition offers the municipality to promote itself throughout Spain”, and has offered significant data, such as the number of views of last year’s matches, which were broadcast on the Basket channel Cantera, the largest training basketball platform in the world, with more than 37,450 spectators. This year, the matches will again be broadcast on the platform.
For his part, the deputy for Sports, José Antonio García, highlighted the drive of the Vera City Council, the Club and all the collaborating entities and companies thanks to which the municipality of Levante Almería has become a great benchmark for academy basketball at the national level. Likewise, the deputy has expressed the commitment of the Diputación with this type of competitions that, as he has pointed out, “help us position our destination as the perfect enclave for holding top-level events and, in turn, become a sensational vehicle to transmit the great values that sport offers to young people of training age such as camaraderie, the desire to excel or the culture of effort. Vera is a municipality of recognized international prestige for its tourist offer and, it is also, for the excellence and variety of sports competitions that it offers to the public”.
The president of the UPLA, Rafael Franco, has detailed the clubs that will participate in this year’s edition, where the academies of some of the best national teams are located with Real Madrid Basketball, Valencia Basket Club, FC Barcelona, CB UPLA, Club Joventut Badalona, Unicaja Basketball, CB Canarias and Coosur Real Betis Balocesto SAD. Franco has indicated that “for the big clubs, coming to Vera is always very pleasant because we try to take care of them to the maximum with great hospitality, and for our players the tournament becomes an incredible and unique experience, which makes them very excited, and also for the parents who enjoy almost more than their children”.
It must be remembered that the tournament was scheduled to take place as usual at Christmas, from January 2 to 5, but that the coronavirus prevented its development.
