Kathmandu, May 25

Madhyapur Youth Association is organising the MYA Weekend Grassroots Football Home and Away League in Sanothimi grounds from May 27.

A total of 16 teams each in senior (11-13yrs) and junior (8-10yrs) sections will take part in the league that will run for about eight months, informed the organisers at a press meet today. The MYA football ground has been divided into four playing fields and the teams will play under home and away basis.

“As we do not have enough grounds, we are using the same field for all the teams. But the same team will not play at the same field in the second leg,” said MYA President Upendra Man Singh, the former national team skipper and coach. “We are following the philosophy of grassroots allowing maximum number of games for the players. A player can play up to 30 matches in the league,” he added.

The MYA, a football academy run by the former national team goalkeeper, had organised Inter-school Football Tournament apart from conducting the grassroots programme. “Now we are going one step ahead. If we keep on providing training only, the participants start losing interest. The grassroots theory says that the players learn more from playing than training. We want to give them the platform where they can showcase their talents,” added Singh.

Singh said the event was also a talent hunt programme for MYA’s future project of establishing a professional academy. “This is probably the first-ever weekend league for the school teams and we will select the best players for the academy. If we can take this project to all the districts, thousands of players get the opportunity to show their skills and we can pick the best out of them for future. Such programmes will ultimately help in the development of Nepali football,” he added.

Teams from MYA, Everest English School, Grassroots Football Academy, Adarsha Janapremi HS School, Nexus International Academy, Bhaktapur English School, Rajarshi Gurukul School, Vinayak Sikchhya Niketan School, Gladstone Academy, Golden Sungava English School, Naulo Jyoti English School, Marigold English School, CVM School, Bhaktapur NIST School, Active English School and Om Gyan Mandir School are taking part in the tournament. The matches will be played on Saturdays and public holidays.

Meanwhile, Director of Grassroots Football Academy Raju Shrestha handed over balls to MYA for the tournament. “We want to thank all the participating teams as they are the main resources of the tournament. More than winning or losing the matches, the event is like a festival and all the parties are on win-win situation,” said Singh.