WINNERS TO REPRESENT THE GUJARAT STATE IN AIFF i-LEAGUE QUALIFIERS
- Total 106 + 18 = 124 matches; 33 teams in 3 categories, each with 30 Players totalling 990 players
- 106 home and away matches will be played in 11 cities of Gujarat
- Each team with 5 Coaches summing up 165 Coaches/Managers
- All the teams can register a maximum of 03 foreigners in a squad of 30 players.
NE SPORTS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD: MARCH 3
Parimal Nathwani, the President of the Gujarat State Football Association (GSFA), on Thursday announced the first-ever GSFA Club Championship in three categories for the football players of Gujarat.
The matches of the tournament will begin on Saturday, March 5, 2022; will be played in two phases and will go on for three months. In the first phase the teams would be divided in groups and would play twice (Home and Away) among the other teams in the Group, in all the categories. The matches would be played on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). In all, about 106 home and away matches will be played in 11 cities of Gujarat. They are Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar, Ankleshwar, Vapi, Godhara, Dantiwada and Anand.
There are in all 33 teams involving 990 footballers: 17 senior, 09 junior and 07 subjunior category teams. Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Bhavnagar participate in all 03 Categories. While Gandhinagar, Anand, Surat and Bharuch are taking part in 02 Categories; Jamnagar, Godhra, Banaskantha and Vapi are participating in 01 Category only. All the teams can register a maximum of 03 foreigners in a squad of 30 players.
In Senior Club Championship, the GSFA affiliated club/team of Gujarat can participate. A squad comprising of 30 players will, however, be allowed to choose 20 players on any match day. It is also mandated that in the senior category, a team should have a minimum of 5 players under the age of 20 years (born in 2003/2004) out of which 3 players always have to be on the field of play in a match. This is because GSFA would like to encourage the grooming of young players along with the seniors, which will enable them to compete on a higher stage and get better exposure.
In Junior Club Championship, club/team of Gujarat having players under the age of 17 (born in 2005/2006) may participate. The intention of GSFA for this age group is ‘Catching them Young’, identify the future talents and nurture them down the line, Nathwani said.
Further, he said that in Sub Junior Club Championship, players under the age of 15 (born in 2007/2008) may participate. This is to popularize the game, identify the raw talent from the grass-root level itself. In some districts we do have school tournaments but to have a proper club championship in this age group will also generate a temperament for football and make it more broad-based, he added.
All the winners in senior and winner & runners up in junior & sub-junior would be qualifying for the second phase, i.e final phase. During the final phase all the qualified teams would be playing against each other at a centralized venue. The final phase matches would be shown live on GSFA Youtube channel. Showing matches live would also generate a lot of interest among the players and also the parents to their son playing the game from their living room.
All the matches are going to be played by Nivia (Simbolo) Footballs, each club category has been provided three footballs to conduct their home games. The winner & Runners Up teams would be awarded a Rolling trophy and medals. The senior category champions will be nominated for playing i-league qualifiers from Gujarat.
In nutshell, the GSFA Club Championship will have total 106 + 18 = 124 matches; 33 teams each with 30 Players totaling 990 players; 33 teams each with 5 Coaches summing up 165 Coaches/Managers. There will be about 50 Official Match Referees. The benefit of having the club championship is that the players get maximum playing time and also, the state association can identify real talent and groom them for the national championship in future. The Club Championship initiative of the GSFA suits AIFF’s strategy to promote club culture in the country for development of football sports on the line of the same in Europe and other football playing countries; Shri Nathwani said.
During the media briefing, along with the GSFA president Nathwani, the other office-bearers who remained present included vice presidents Pradipsinh Vaghela, Arunsinh Rajput, Jiignesh Paatil and Hanif Ginwala who shared the information. Secretary Mulrajsinh Chudasama conducted the meeting. Treasurer Mayank Buch proposed a vote of thanks.
