The Subroto Cup, the biggest school football tournament in Asia, on Wednesday announced sports television network Star Sports as its presenting sponsor for the forthcoming 57th edition to be held at the Ambedkar Stadium here from September 14 to October 21.
The television network will join the endeavour of Subroto Cup to nurture talent at grassroots level and through their far and widespread reach will help take the game to every household.
This year, the first of its kind search for top talent will be rolled out with the PMO's #KheloFootball mandate and an initiative of the Ministry of Youth Affairs in association with Indian Super League (ISL) franchise Delhi Dynamos FC, the Football Development Partner. This programme will take place via 22 football clinics in different Schools in the Delhi NCR, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan region.
These clinics will be open to all coaches and students to attend and on participation they will be presented with a completion certificate. As a way of promoting the sport, merchandise will be distributed to all participants.
The best performing players at the clinics and matches will be selected by the scouts and officials, who will then go on to form a boys and girls teams under the Delhi Dynamos and Subroto Cup coaches. The selected boys and girls teams will get a 'Wild Card' entry to participate in the Subroto Cup tournament.
"The Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society along with the IAF has over the years built a successful grassroots programme that we are extremely proud of and now we are pleased to announce that Star Sports have come on board to further enhance our initiative," Wing Commander Vijay Yadav said in a statement.
"Star Sports share our vision in growing the game and through the initiatives they have taken to promote football we are confident that this will be a successful and mutually beneficial association," Yadav, who is honorary secretary of Subroto Mukherjee Education Society, added.
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Prashant Agarwal, President of Delhi Dynamos FC, said, "DDFC is proud to associate with the Subroto Cup as their football development partner."
"Subroto Cup is the premier youth football tournament of the country and over the years it has helped scout and promote some of the biggest footballers in the country. In fact, some of our senior team players have also played the tournament."
--IANS
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