Another boost for school footballers

The 3rd Biju Patnaik Gold Cup Inter-District School Football Tournament is beginning in Bhubaneswar on January 3 with the motto to encourages talents and bring them to limelight. ``The five-day tournament, featuring 13 teams, will witness the biggest congregation of school-level football talents in the state,`` organising committee chairman Padmanav Behera said at a media conference today. ``The tournament will also be a good opportunity for unknown talents to prove their mettle and get into limelight,`` added Behera, a former minister. Among the teams, nine will be represented by their district sports hostels, where regular coaching and training facilities are provided to school-going footballers. Other four teams in the fray include Bhubaneswar city school league champions Unit-I Boys High School, runners-up Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Tata Steel Sports Feeder Centre (Duburi) and Bhubaneswar Combined School XI. Sports Hostel teams of Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Mayurbhanj and Cuttack have been seeded to compete in the quarterfinals directly. Bhubaneswar Combined School XI will take on KISS in the opening match. The final is slated to be played on January 7. The tournament is being organised by Unit-VI Athletic Association in collaboration with Departments of School and Mass Education, Sports and Youth Services. This is the fourth event Unit-VI Athletic Association has been conducting to promote football in the state. The other three include Bhubaneswar inter-school tournament (held 18 times till date), Tata Utkalika Cup floodlit tournament (11 times) and Pravakar Das Memorial tournament (five times). Besides these tournament, the association has been sending school-level footballers to Tata Football Academy regularly for better exposure and training.