VISAKHAPATNAM: To inculcate the habit of playing football among the students, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will organise the “OORJA-CAPF (Central Armed Police Force) Under-19 Football Talent Hunt tournament” for the Under-19 boys and girls in the city from May 1 to 10.
Anand Mohan, chairman of the tournament and CISF inspector-general, South Sector- Chennai, addressed the media here on Tuesday. Boys and girls teams brand ambassadors Telugu cine hero Naani and Olympian Karanam Malleswari along with collector Pravin Kumar and others participated in the logo and poster release function. There will be a Beach Walk on Wednesday at 6 am to promote the tourney. Anand Mohan said the tournament was being held prior to the FIFA World Cup U-17 to be held this year.
“Mission XI Million programme has been evolved into India’s biggest sporting activity. The mission was initiated as a school interacting programme initially. It is to take the game to the hearts and minds of eleven million boys and girls around the country ,” said Anand Mohan.
He revealed that the CISF had been given the responsibility to organise ‘Oorja-CAPF Under-19 Football Talent Hunt tourney’ in association with the government authorities, schools and other organisations in and around Vizag. He also said that in Phase-1 a total of eight boys and eight girls teams will participate in the tourney. A total of 32 matches will be played in the phase-1 to be held in Vizag. The tournament will be organised in three phases with separate matches for boys and girls, he said.
The Phase-2 of the tourney will be organised from June 8 to 25 at six venues across the country with 36 boys and 36 girl teams participating.
The Phase-3 will be conducted from July 8 to 25 and six boys and six girls teams from six zones will compete for the Prime Minister’s Football Tourney Under-19 National Championship, Anand Mohan added.