Football: Zahira Super 16 7s will kick off next Saturday

The 11th edition of Zahira Super 16 Soccer 7s will kick off next Saturday (17) at the Zahira College ground in Colombo from 8.30am.   The much looked-forward-to popular Sevens soccer competition among schools came out with an innovation this year with the inclusion of the Emerging Soccer 7s, where the winner out of eight up and coming soccer playing school becomes a part of the main tournament.   Hamza College beat St. Lucia’s College by 2 goals to nil on penalty shootouts in the final a fortnight ago to win the Emerging Schools Soccer 7s Championship thus becoming the first team to join the big boys in school soccer.   The newcomers to the top league will join defending champions Zahira College Colombo, Royal College Colombo, Maris Stella College Negombo, St. Benedict’s College Kotahena, St. Joseph’s College Colombo, St. Mary’s College Kegalle, St. Peter’s College Colombo, St. Thomas’ College Matara, Wesley College Colombo, De Mazenod College Kandana, Hindu College Colombo, Zahira College Gampola, Al Aqsa College Kinniya, Al Adhan College Badulla and Manipai Hindu College Jaffna.   The tournament will be conducted on a league basis of four groups where each group will consist of four teams. Based on placing after the first round, teams will be drawn into four categories in the second round, namely Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield championships.   The Cup winners will be given a cash prize of Rs.50,000 along with the main trophy.   The total value of cash rewards and awards come up to over Rs. 500,000.   “This is the one and only soccer tournament in the country which offers such cash prizes and awards at schools level. We as the organisers take great pleasure in announcing that O.H. Sulaiman, the Chief Executive Officer of Pyramid Willmar has pledged his willingness and enthusiasm to uplift the youth football in Sri Lanka by being the main sponsor of this tournament for last 11 years with us. We value his support greatly,” stated Shameek Samsudeen, the Project Chairman on behalf of the organisers, the Past Prefects’ Association of Zahira College (PPA).   Last year hosts Zahira Colombo won the main championship while Maris Stella College Negombo, Zahira Mawanella and Royal Colombo won the Plate, Shield and Bowl championships respectively.