JOIN USThe tournament, which will be held at the Bala Gangadharanatha Swamy International Residential School, will see six teams -- Government Sports High School (Bangalore), CRPF School (Delhi), Infant Jesus High School (Goa), St Joseph High School (Kozhikode), Sukantanagar Vidyaniketan (Kolkata) and Don Bosco High School (Mumbai) -- vying for the top prize of Rs 50,000 and the first ever MYFC trophy. The six teams will be be involved in an all-play-all round-robin league, with the top two facing off in the final at the Sree Kanteerava stadium on April 30.
“We are very happy to be associated with this project. From what we have seen so far, the talent is unbelievable in India, and I’m not saying that just for the sake of saying it,” Mark Reid, Senior Football Development Officer of the Celtic Football Academy, said.
“We will select 20 students after the tournament concludes and hold another clinic for a week, after which we will pick two students who will travel to Glasgow to watch Celtic and experience Scottish football for a week,” he added.
On Thursday, Reid and fellow Academy coaches Chris Hendry and Robert Glen began a four-day clinic for the six teams, and the trio felt that starting from the grassroots was the way forward for Indian football. “We are making sure that a foundation will be laid with our inputs. Hopefully, the coaches here will then carry that forward to make it a success,” Glen said.
“We have worked all over the world and we know that with a country like India, the potential is immense. We hope to play a small part in bringing out that potential,” Hendry added.