U-15 Football: Around 560 schools to take part at Samaposha Championship

Approximately 560 schools are set to compete at this year’s Samaposha Under-15 Inter-School Football Championship which will kick off from Tuesday (13).   This was revealed by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) officials at a press conference held at its headquarters in Torrington on Thursday.   Altogether 400 boy’s teams and over 100 girls’ teams representing closer to 560 schools will be participating in this year’s tournament, which will be the seventh installment in succession.   Although the participation of 500 schools is still quite impressive there are still a total of over 9000 schools in Sri Lanka and confirmed 560 compared to that figure seem quite disheartening according to experts.   When pressed about this matter the President and Secretary of the FFSL assured that in the future they will broaden their horizon and try to get even more schools involved.   Commenting on the tournament, the President of the FFSL, Anura de Silva stated: “The Under-15 Inter-School Championship is recognised among students as decidedly the most competitive but friendly tournaments to be held annually for the past six years. A great deal of effort and camaraderie is seen in this tournament and it gives us an opportunity to identify the talented players. Also this tournament is an ideal opportunity to be used as a platform to increase the keenness and enthusiasm aiming students for this sport. Towards this effort we are extremely grateful to Samaposha who have come forward and who continuously sponsor this annual tournament. It is heartening to see boys and girls who have played in tournament who are now recognised as national football players”.   Last year’s tournament saw C.W.W Kannangara MV Galle snatching the Boy’s category trophy and the fair lasses from Maliyadeva Girls’ School Kurunegala took home the trophy for the Girls’.   A total of 32 Centers Island wide have been identified as venues to host the zonal preliminary round games and the final round is planned to be held in Jaffna.