Finally, a cellphone promotion (called Pasaporte a los Partidos) I can get behind! T-Mobile is teaming up with CONCACAF, North America’s, Central America’s and the Caribbean’s soccer governing body, to help promote the CONCACAF Champions League, the region’s main club competition. (Think UEFA Champions League or the Copa Libertadores in South America.) Anyway! If you’re a T-Mobile user, all you have to do is visit this new T-Mo site, or text “win” or “gana” to 72579.
And what would you win? The grand prize nets you and five of your buddies a trip to Dubai to see the FIFA World Club Cup, the tournament that’s usually held in Japan but will instead be in United Arab Emirates for the next two years. There you’ll get to see the winner of the CONCACAF Champions League take on other regions’ winners; my guess is the European representative will be either FC Barcelona or Manchester United. (Aside: Isn’t it funny how last December when United had to fly all the way to Japan for the 2008 Club World Cup, United fans were all, “this is a stupid distraction of a tournament, etc.” until they won and now are all, “we’re gonna win the quintuple!” They didn’t give a damn about the tournament until they won it; now it’s the Most Important Title Ever. See how that works?)
Winners will also get a chance to meet players like Carlos Valderrama, a guy even non-soccer fans can probably recognize.
All told, pretty neat.