Singer Carlos Vives brings 200 family members of Colombia team to Brazil for World Cup

Singer Carlos Vives brings 200 family members of Colombia team to Brazil for World Cup
By Mesfin Fekadu, The Associated Press June 16, 2014 3:28 PM


[font size=1]
FILE - In this May 23, 2014 file photo, Colombia's singer Carlos Vives, front row, center, poses with Colombia's national
soccer team after singing at their send-off exhibition game at El Campin stadium in Bogota, Colombia. Colombia had extra
motivation in winning its first game in the World Cup this weekend: 200 of the players’ family members attended the big
event. Colombia beat Greece 3-0 on Saturday, June 14, 2014, and their presence was strong since Grammy-winning singer
Vives partnered with Toronto-based oil company Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. to send players’ family members who couldn’t
afford to pay the costs of the trip to the World Cup. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, File)[/font]

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Colombia had extra motivation this weekend when it won its first game in the World Cup: 200 of the players' family members attended the big event.

Colombia beat Greece 3-0 on Saturday, and their presence was strong since Grammy-winning singer Carlos Vives partnered with Toronto-based oil company Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. to send players' family members who couldn't afford to pay the costs of the trip to the World Cup.

Colombia-born Vives' initiative allowed five family members of each of the players, coaches and other workers on the team to fly to Brazil. Pacific Rubiales, the oil and gas producer that gets most of its production in Colombia, is paying all of their expenses, said the singer's wife, former Miss Colombia Claudia Elena Vasquez. They budgeted $1 million for the trip.

Vives, 52, said bringing the families to the World Cup would serve as additional "motivation for the players." Colombia, which will play Ivory Coast on Thursday, is taking part in its first World Cup since 1998.

More:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Singer+Carlos+Vives+brings+family+members+Colombia+team/9943904/story.html

[center]