701 teams at Samaposha Schools Football Tournament
The ‘Samaposha Under-14 Inter-school Football Championship 2017’ organised in collaboration with the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) and Sri Lanka Schools Football Association (SSFA), kicked off on October 21.
Once again the tournament has received an overwhelming response with over 12,000 students, representing 534 boys teams and 167 girls teams from schools island-wide are participating. A total of 32 centres will host the tournament encompassing all districts in the country. The final round is scheduled to be held in January 20 to 23, 2018 under floodlights at the Colombo Racecourse. The finals will be on January 23. The first round matches will be worked off on 25 districts and 32 zones. The first round games will be on a league basis. Thirty two boys’ teams and 24 girls teams will be selected to the final round.
On the final day, awards will be presented to the Best Player (Boys), Best Player (Girls) and also the Best Goalkeeper of the tournament.
Commenting on the Tournament, Anura de Silva, President, FFSL said, “The Under-14 Inter-school Championship is recognised among students as the most competitive but friendly tournaments held. We strongly believe this football competition will bring together the cream of young football talent and generate a lot of excitement and interest in the sport across the nation. It also provides us an ideal platform to identify talented players.”
“We are extremely grateful to Samaposha who continue to sponsor this annual event. Samaposha has been contributing and working towards the development of school football for nearly a decade and we look forward to taking youth football in the country to the next level,” de Silva added.
Hemantha Abeykoon, President, SSFA added, “We sincerely thank CBL for coming on board and helping us nurture the talent of young teenagers for the sport,” added
Shammi Karunaratne, Director/CEO of Plenty Foods (Pvt) Ltd expressed the company’s commitment in uplifting school football. He said, “Energy is not the only thing that matters in sport. Other aspects such as skills, the necessary endurance, self-belief and discipline are also important. To achieve all these factors it is paramount to have proper nutrition.”