Zahira Veterans Masters Football Tournament on October 27
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The Executive Committee Member of Zahira College Old Boys’ Association (Kingdon of Saudi Arabia Branch) Mohamed Jiffry presenting the main Sponsorship cheque to principal of Zahira College, Trizviiy Marikkar. Also in the picture are president of Zahira Veterans T.J. Cuncheer, Zahira College OBA President Naina Mohamed and Project Chairman Shaffie Namiz
Zahira Veterans will organise their inaugural ‘Battle of the Masters 2019′ football tournament on October 27 from 8.00 am at college ground in Maradana. It will be conducted under the core objective of ‘add value to the past football talent in Sri Lanka’.
Veteran teams of hosts Zahira College, Royal College, Ananda College, Hameed Al Husseinie College, St. Benedict College, De Mazenod College, Zahira College Gampola and St. Henry’s College Jaffna will compete in this competition.
“Football at Zahira is not just a sport, it is a passion ingrained deep within the culture for more than 100 years. Hence, this tournament will be an initiative to recognize the Sri Lankan football back in the days, with the concept of bringing together the bond of former football players and promote the importance and value of their experience for the upcoming young football talents,” T.J. Chuncheer, the President of Zahira Veterans stated.
The inaugural veterans tournament has been made possible with the contributions of the main sponsor — Zahira Old Boys’ Association Branch in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and co-sponsored Commercial Safety (Viro). The proceeds of this tournament will be utilised to uplift the sports facility of Zahira College by providing four dugout (substitute benches) in the college ground.
Well known former Sri Lanka national and club football players will turn out for their respective schools as veteran players in this one-of-a-kind tournament, which will be held as an ‘Open’ event.
Observing the success of the tournament, the Zahira Veterans hope to develop the tournament further in the coming years, by adding more teams and conducting football coaching programmes. In addition they will look into generating more assistance to the Zahira football teams through various other projects.
A press conference to announce the tournament was held earlier last week with the participation of President of Zahira Veterans — T.J. Cuncheer, the Principal of Zahira College — Trizviiy Marikkar, Old Boys Association President — Naina Mohamed and Project Chairman — Shaffie Namiz, at the college premises.
With a rich history of over 125 Years, Zahira College Colombo is one of the pioneers in school football and has been dominating the game ever since its inception producing many national players to the national team. The Zahira Veterans was founded in 2011 by enthusiastic past school football players in which many have donned the national jerseys. Since then the association has undertaken many projects with the aim of developing the game among veterans including organising annual trips to play with foreign veteran teams and participating in tournaments in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia on numerous occasions.