Accra, March 31, GNA - The first group of 37 Areeba customers on Friday won their place in the company's sponsorship package for 200 customers to join the Black Stars at the World Cup in Germany in June this year.

The 37 winners were each selected randomly with the click of the computer mouse from more than 1.2 million 024 numbers in a special computerized draw monitored by event statisticians, KPMG-Ghana. The more than 1.2 million subscribers who qualified for the first draw of the Areeba World Cup Promotion, included 32,000 newly activated numbers and over one million prepaid subscribers who recharged their units between March 13 and 28, 2006.

Mr. Haitham Majed, Areeba's Director of Marketing told the press who witnessed and participated in the draw that staff of Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba and KPMG were excluded from the competition to prevent conflict of interest.

Five of the winners who were called on their phones and told about the opportunity to join the Stars to Germany included Gloria Yeboah of Darkuman in Accra who emerged as the first winner with phone number 0242574779.

The other four were Emily Senawo of South Labadi, Accra Cecilia Asantewa of Dompoase, Ebenezer Addo Bulley of Mataheko in Accra and Samuel Addo of Kumasi.

Four other winning numbers could not be reached on their phones and had presumably been either put off or out of coverage area. Mr. Majed assured the winners that their numbers would be published in the media while Areeba would try to reach them on phone adding that those who would not be reached by the end of the draw in June would automatically lose their place to other subscribers.

He also assured the winners that Areeba would provide them with introduction letters to the German Embassy for their visas, and that those who do not intend to go by themselves should provide the names of their nominees to Areeba in good time.

Mr. Majed said subsequent draws would be conducted between April and June to select the remaining 113 customers in the newly activated and prepaid subscribers category while the remaining 50 winners would be selected from the postpaid subscriber list.

The Areeba World Cup Promotion was designed to provide full sponsorship for 200 Areeba customers to this year's World Cup that includes return ticket to Germany, tickets to watch all the matches, hotel accommodation, transportation, 200 euros pocket money and insurance packages in Germany. 31-Mar-06