DHL, the world’s leading express and logistics company, announced today that more than 350 employees across the Asia Pacific region will participate in the inaugural ‘DPWN World Sports Event’, organized by parent company Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN), and compete in two exciting tournaments - Football and Cheerleading - against the best teams from other regions.

DPWN will host the ‘DPWN World Sports Event’, its first ever corporate activity to be held at a global level, near Hanover, Germany, between 16 and 19 June for its employees from more than 220 countries and territories around the world.

Similar to the FIFA World Cup 2006 tournament format, DPWN teams from around the world will first play in regional qualifying tournaments before the top 24 football teams are selected to compete in the exclusive event. The top 24 football teams will consist of five teams from Asia Pacific, six teams from Americas, eight teams from Europe - including one team from Russia - one team form the Middle East , and four teams from host country Germany.

From Asia Pacific to the DPWN World Sports Event in Germany
Across the Asia Pacific region, a total of over 500 employees comprising of 14 football and 12 cheerleading teams will be competing to qualify for a spot in the final tournament in Germany. The teams have been selected out of more than 3,000 employees that applied to become part their countries’ squads.

“We strongly believe that the most prized asset in our organization is our employees. This event is an excellent opportunity to bring our people together in the spirit of camaraderie and teamwork - a key element of DHL’s success stories worldwide,” said Scott Price, Chief Executive Officer, DHL Express - Asia Pacific. “This is also an excellent opportunity for our representatives in different countries to get to know each other better, fostering goodwill through an exciting tournament.”

The 14 football teams from the Asia Pacific countries will be divided into two groups- North Asia and South Asia & Oceania, where the top two teams from each group will qualify for the finals in Germany. The fifth qualifying team will be decided from a Play-off between the 3rd-placed teams of both groups.

The North Asia group comprising China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Philippines, will have their play-offs in Beijing on 4-5 March. The South Asia play-offs, comprising Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Oceania, India and Sri Lanka, will have take place on 11-12 March in Singapore.

The ‘Cheerleading Tournament’ will be held parallel to the football playoffs, where the decision will be based on the teams’ ability to cheer up the football teams from the sideline and a special 3-minute performance to demonstrate their skills in areas such as choreography, showmanship and synchronization.