Grassroots Tournament – Grassroots Football India

Tag: Grassroots Tournament (page 1 of 2)

Kolkata’s Padatik Football League Offers a Ray of Hope

In the Indian state of West Bengal, and in Kolkata especially, fans are as passionate about football as they are about cricket. This year, a few individuals in the city became proud owners of football teams participating in the Padatik Football League. While the team owners may not be famous Bollywood actors or the league as glamorous as the Indian Super League, the Padatik Football League is a one-of-a-kind event that was started in 2009.

So what’s so special about it? The participants are the children of women from red light areas in the state, prisoners, drug addicts, slum dwellers and tribals. These children don’t have any coaching, but they play with such passion that the league has gradually gained recognition for its work.

Caption: A Padatik Football League match underway
Source: DMSC Facebook

U15 Youth League – The Zonal Phase Ends

February 23, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 1 Comment

On Friday, the U15 Youth League zonal phase came to an end. The final12 matches were played over 4 days last week, and here’s a quick look at the scores:

1st Mumbai FC Masters League Season Ends on a High

February 22, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 0 Comments

After 6 weeks, the inaugural season of Mumbai FC Masters League supported by the MDFA came to an end yesterday. Over the past few weekends, more than 1700 children from over 40 different schools and 30 academies played football at three venues all over Mumbai. Matches were held at Andheri Sports Complex, St Xaviers Ground, Parel, and Kick Football Turf in Powai.

Mumbai FC worked together with the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) and For Young Indians (FYI) Sports to give the youth of the city a chance to play football competitively. Mumbai FC also used the league as a way to scout talented youth that they could train for their own youth teams. At the end of the league, 15 students from each age category (U8 boys, U10 boys, U12 boys, U14 girls and U14 boys) will be chosen to train with Mumbai FC for a whole year for free. As an open league, there were schools, academies and even NGOs who participated, with schools like Don Bosco and St. Pauls, and academies like Mumbai Sporting and Christ Academy sending in numerous teams.

St. Pauls play Millat FC in the U8 Finals

Anantapur U18 Girls League Is A Huge Success

February 18, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 1 Comment

In December 2015, Rural Development Trust’s (RDT) Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA) kicked off the first ever Anantapur Football League (AFL) for girls. Although the Girls AFL came to an end in the first week of February 2016, the initiative has given girls and young women in Anantapur a definitive and bright future in football in India.

In the group stages, each team had to play six games, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the knock-out round to be played at ASA’s Anantapur Sports Village (ASV). The knock-out stage was scheduled in such a way, that the matches ended well before the athletes needed to prepare for their end-of-year exams. This meant that the players, their parents, coaches, and team managers could focus enough attention on the sport, without having to constantly worry about exam woes.

Action from the 1st AFL Girls Final between Atmakur & Kalyandurg
Source: ASA

U15 Youth League – Group A Off to a Great Start

February 12, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 0 Comments

Once Shillong Lajong FC U15 beat Gauhati Town Club U15 last Friday, we thought we were done with the U15 Youth League for a while, but a new Zone A started their matches on Sunday, and we’ve had three action-packed days of football since! Here’s a quick look at the scores of matches played this last week:

ASA Footballers Unbeaten in Maiden U15 Youth League Appearance

February 8, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 0 Comments

The 2015-16 season has been a great time for football at the Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA). The boys have been performing well, ever since the ASA joined hands with Fateh Hyderabad Associated Football Club (FHAFC) to support them in their I-League debut.

It all started when Fateh Hyderabad signed ASA’s senior-most player, S. Bhaskar Reddy to play for their I-League Division 2 team. This was followed by the signing of all the senior U18 ASA boys and U15 ASA boys to play in the IU18 I-League and U15 Youth Leagues for Fateh Hyderabad, respectively.

Warming Up Before a Game
Source: ASA

Ramco Cements Strengthens Football in Kerala

February 3, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 0 Comments

Kerala Playing Services in the 2013 Santosh Trophy Final
Source: spiderkerala.net

At the Santosh Trophy final in 2013, Kerala striker R. Kannan missed out on a beautiful opportunity to score, and the match ended up going into penalties with Kerala losing to Services 3-4. After the match, at a dinner hosted by their sponsors, Ramco Cements, R. Kannan lamented about the missed opportunity. However, instead of dwelling on how he could have possibly salvaged a game in the past, he told Balaji K. Moorthy of Ramco Cements that he intended on working harder and bringing home the cup in 2014!

Inspired by R. Kannan’s dedication to the sport, Ramco Cements decided to tie up with the Kerala Football Association again, and work towards boosting the sport in the state. They started the Ramco Kerala Premier League in 2014, which saw participation from 12 clubs across the state. In keeping with their commitment to football in Kerala, Ramco recently started a new youth league, the Ramco State Academy League. This one-of-a-kind U16 football competition is being held between the champion academies of each of the 14 districts in the state.

Star Sports Young Heroes Gear Up for Spain

January 29, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 2 Comments

Coach Jamshid Nassiri shares tips with the boys
Source: Young Heroes Facebook

In August last year, Star Sports launched an interesting campaign called Young Heroes. A unique scouting and Under-15 football tournament, the campaign was started to boost grassroots football in the country, and unearth hitherto unknown football talents for the future. Conducted in 15 cities across India, around 60 to 100 schools from each city were invited to participate in the Young Heroes program. The competition attracted approximately 420,000 students and matches were played for two days in every city. These matches were attended by a group of scouts headed by ex-Iranian football international, Jamshid Nassiri, who selected 3-4 boys from each team to participate in a training camp.

Pune FC Starts 2016 with the Right Foot Forward

January 13, 2016 / Grassroots Football India / 1 Comment

In the summer of 2011, the Pune FC Academy was started, and although the club no longer has a first team, they continue to focus on developing grassroots football in India. With the simple mantra of ‘Learn to Play the Pune FC Way’, the Academy has worked hard over the last 4 years, to carefully mould aspiring footballers in their city. The club recently topped the Maharashtra Zone in the U18 I-League and the U15 Youth League to qualify for the National Round to be held later this year.

As part of their youth development, Pune FC started off 2016 on a great note, by conducting a first of its kind intra-Soccer School Tournament at their training pitches in Mamurdi on the first weekend of the year. The aim of the tournament, was to bring together all the children from various Pune FC Soccer School centres across the city.

U15 Youth League Week 5 – Salgaocar Takes the Lead While Mumbai Inches Closer to Pune

December 4, 2015 / Grassroots Football India / 0 Comments

This weekend, the U15 Youth League saw 8 matches being played. But before we take a look at what happened over Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, let’s quickly recap the Goa Zone’s (Group C) last Monday and Tuesday matches. Last Monday, Dempo Sports Club U15 played host to Salgaocar FC U15. The match started off on an interesting note when Dempo’s Aaron S. Alvarez was shown a yellow card in the 20^th minute. Nine minutes later, their opponents faced the same fate, when Salgaocar’s Riston Colaco was also given a yellow by the ref. Both teams were unable to score, and the match ended in a goalless draw. On Tuesday evening, Sporting Clube de Goa U15 took on SAI-Goa U15 at the Don Bosco Ground. Things got interesting just before the half time whistle, when the ref showed SAI-Goa’s TH London a yellow. Early on in the second half, Sporting Clube de Goa’s Sahil Sunil Halankar netted the ball off a pass from Desmond Fernandes in the 51^st minute. SAI-Goa was unable to recover from the goal against them, and the match ended 1-0 in favour of their opponents.

Tag: Grassroots Tournament (page 1 of 2)

Kolkata’s Padatik Football League Offers a Ray of Hope

U15 Youth League – The Zonal Phase Ends

1st Mumbai FC Masters League Season Ends on a High

Anantapur U18 Girls League Is A Huge Success

U15 Youth League – Group A Off to a Great Start

ASA Footballers Unbeaten in Maiden U15 Youth League Appearance

Ramco Cements Strengthens Football in Kerala

Star Sports Young Heroes Gear Up for Spain

Pune FC Starts 2016 with the Right Foot Forward

U15 Youth League Week 5 – Salgaocar Takes the Lead While Mumbai Inches Closer to Pune

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