Copa Ataúdes or Coffin Cup, a yearly futsal tournament hosted by the
Peruvian city of Juliaca, has been dubbed the world’s most depressing
sports competition for offering coffins as prizes to the three best
teams.
The Juliaca Coffin Cup is not your usual futsal tournament. It’s a
competition between teams representing the twelve largest funeral houses
in the Puno Region of southeastern Peru, so it kind of makes sense
that the main prizes be something representative of the funeral
business. Still, fighting your heart out on the pitch for an expensive
casket you have to share with five other teammates doesn’t exactly sound
worthwhile. That didn’t stop the winning team from parading their
$1,300 luxury coffin on their shoulders and singing “Olé, olé, campeon!” at the end of the final match, though.
And as if playing for coffins wasn’t depressing enough, the 12 teams
competing in Coffin Cup 2019 also chose some thematic names for
themselves, like “Last Goodbye”, “Eternal Dream”, “Rest and Peace”, “Los
Angeles” or “Road to Paradise”.
The top prize for the winning team was a luxury coffin valued at
4,500 thousand soles (about $1,300) while the second and third place
teams received cheaper models. Organizers declared themselves proud of
being the first to offer coffins as prizes in a sports competition, and
promised to put even more expensive ones on the line next year.
“I want to thank God. Never at an international level has there been
an inter-hospitality championship with coffins as prizes,” a Coffin Cup
official told reporters.
No word on how the members of the three best teams plan to split
their prizes, but I’m guessing they’ll just sell the coffins and split
the cash.
