Ahmedabad leg of Reliance football meet launched

Ahmedabad, Sep 29 (IANS)  The Ahmedabad city leg of Reliance Foundation Youth Sports school and college football championship was launched here on Friday.

Foundation chairperson Nita Ambani launched the event. "We have over 60,000 kids playing this beautiful game in 30 centres across the country right now. By December this year, we would have reached out to over 6 million children through our football initiatives," she said in a release.

"It's heartening to see so much wonderful talent at our disposal. I am sure the day is not far when we can start competing as equals with top teams in Asia and the world."

Cheered on by hundreds of kids at the SAL Education campus, Ambani ceremoniously launched the second season of RF Youth Sports just before the inaugural match between SAL Institute of Technology & Engineering and Silver Oak College of Engineering & Technology.

For Ahmedabad leg, the football championship will have 220 teams vying for the top honours in four categories -- Junior Boys, Senior Boys, School Girls and College Boys.

Ambai also extended her best wishes to the Indian team for the upcoming FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be held in India.

"These are wonderful times for Indian football," said Ambani. "We have recently seen the Indian national team break into the top-100 in world rankings after a gap of two decades. And now for the first time in the history of the game, India is not only participating in a FIFA World Cup competition but also hosting a full-fledged world football event.

"I am sure our boys are proud of what they are about to achieve and so are we for them, as well as for the nation to be represented in the World Cup," she added.