Moose-Mercantile 7s Football on Saturday
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This time the Mercantile 7s will be held at the Racecourse ground
The 39th annual Moose-Mercantile 7s Football Tournament will be held at the Racecourse ground in Colombo next Saturday. A total of 34 teams will compete under four categories in the one-day competition sponsored by Moose Clothing Company.
A total of 24 registered teams will compete under the Cup, Plate and Bowl categories while 10 non-member companies have been given the green light to compete under the Shield category by the Mercantile Football Association (MFA).
The tournament promises a carnival atmosphere with many entertainment activities throughout the day where a total of 58 matches are lined up to be played in three different playing fields of the Racecourse ground. Coincidentally the MFA celebrates its centenary year and the entity expects to dish out a memorable day of football with other interactive segments.
The teams competing under the Cup, Plate and Bowl segments will be drawn into eight groups of three teams each, where the first round would be a round robin. The top eight teams from each group will compete in the Cup quarter-finals while the eight runner-up teams will play in the Bowl quarter-finals. The four winning teams from the Cup quarter-finals will advance to the semi-finals while the four losing sides will be drafted to the Plate semi-finals.
The 24 registered teams playing under these categories are Commercial Leasing, Akbar Brothers, Amana Bank, DFCC Bank, Commercial Credit, Ceylinco Insurance, Dialog Axiata, John Keells Holdings, Smart Shirts, Commercial Bank, ExpoLanka Holdings, Galadari Hotel, Hatton NAtional Bank, HSBC, Nations Trust Bank, Lake House, LB Finance, Sampath Bank, Seylan Bank, Softlogic Group, Sri Lanka Telecom, Standard Chartered Bank, Virtusa and WNS Group.
The 10 non-registered teams will compete under four groups — two of three each and two of two each — playing for the Shield championship. The teams drafted are Fair First Insurance, ITX360, MAS Holdings, No Limit Clothing, Eskimo Fashions, AIA Insurance, Pick Me Taxi, Union Tobacco, CW Mackie and Hilton Colombo Residencies. They too will play a round robin stage before the top four and second seed teams move into the quarter-finals. From the quarter-finals matches of all categories will be played as knockouts. The finals will begin from 4.00pm onwards with the Cup final scheduled to be played at 6.15pm.