A soccer tournament featuring competitions among African communities in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, has kicked off, aiming to facilitate exchanges between Africans living in the city.

The competition, which was inaugurated in 2016 by MoneyGram, a global provider of money transfers, was expanded to a 7-a-side tournament to enable more soccer players representing the African community in Guangzhou to take part in the structured competition.

"The competition will help facilitate a closer relationship for African communities, who have a strong affiliation and passion for soccer," said Liu Rongqun, regional director of MoneyGram for China and Mongolia.

According to Liu, more such games for African people will be promoted nationwide in the near future.

"The trade between China and Africa has been growing very fast in recent years. We need to promote financial services to facilitate relations between those doing business in China and their families," Liu said.

Soccer players from African communities in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, competes for a ball during a soccer tournament, which aims to facilitate relations between Africans living in the city. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

This year, 50 African teams from the nations of Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Gabon and Central Africa Republic have registered to compete in the tournament, which will run for three Saturdays and culminate in the finals on June 10.

Guangzhou, a traditional international trade hub in South China, is home to thousands of Africans living and engaging in business in the city.

Obafemi Martins, a Nigerian professional soccer player, who plays for Shanghai Shenhua, met with the African communities to launch this year’s tournament on Saturday.

"Football is our passion and you can see that this has been fully embraced by the whole African community in Guangzhou," Martins said.