“AIFF has really taken a firm step to launch the U-15 Youth League. Unless the youngsters are given serious exposure to competitive football, they won’t get ready for bigger stage which will be tougher and steeper,”
Scott O’Donell, AIFF Technical Director
The Goan Network
MARGAO
The Under 15 Youth League, an All India Football Federation venture, to promote youngsters is slated to kick off on November 14 (Goa Zone C) with Salgaocar FC set to lock their horns with Sports Authority of India, Goa. The other participating teams are Dempo Sports Club and Sporting Clube de Goa.
Grassroots football is one of the prime aspects which has been nurtured by AIFF for sometime now. This will be the first instance where two age group pan-India club tournaments are being run in India simultaneously. The U-18 I-League has already kicked off in major parts of India and now the U-15 Youth League is about to kick off.
Akin to U-18 I-League, all I-League and Second Division League clubs will compete in U-15 Youth League. Some eminent academies of the likes of Baichung Bhutia Football School and other clubs across the country will join the veterans in U-15 Youth League.
Forty teams, who will be divided into six zones according to their geographical locations, have confirmed their participation in the tournament.
The groups are as follows: Kolkata-Jamshedpur, Guwahati-Shillong, Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi-Chandigarh and Rest of India. Two teams from each group would qualify to the next stage where they would be divided into two groups. Subsequently, top two teams will get the nod to semi-finals and eventual final will decide the maiden winner of U-15 Youth League.
Scott O’Donell, Technical Director, AIFF sounds optimistic and elated about the tournament’s prospect:“AIFF has taken really a firm step to launch this U-15 Youth League. Unless the youngsters are given serious exposure to competitive football, they won’t get ready for the bigger stage which will be tougher and steeper.” He rightly points out that the national scouts will have a worthy exposure to bucketful of players as well. “Indeed we’re looking forward to the 2017 U-17 FIFA World Cup. The spotters will have a significant opportunity to handpick raw talents ahead of the World Cup, which is less than two years away.”
