Supporting the cause of ‘Sports for Development’, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany has partnered with NGO Stairs for one of the biggest school football league ever- the Stairs School Football League (SSFL). The tournament will commence on December 1, 2014 and will be held in the Delhi-NCR region. The Stairs School Football League is being supported by the Directorate of Education, the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). The Sports Authority of India is coming as the venue partner.
Speaking about the initiative
Mr. Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder, Stairs said: “We are extremely excited to have the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany onboard. Their support to Stairs SFL is a big encouragement towards our endeavour in promoting football at the grassroot level in schools.”
The first edition of the Stairs SFL in association with the Department of Education NCT will have teams from Delhi. The information for participation has been sent to schools recognized by the DoE comprising of 43 KendriyaVidyalayas, 924 Delhi government schools and 1187 public schools.
Every team will get to play atleast 3 matches. A total of 256 matches will be played during the tournament in adherence to the FIFA guidelines. The matches will be spread over 20 days with the finals being held on 22nd December, 2014.
The league intends to develop a well-organized grass root youth development program, through an organised championship league which will be committed towards structured professional training. This will also allow access to football to the children in their own environment. The idea of this league is that every enthusiastic boy between the age group of 14-17 gets an opportunity to play competitively.
“Registrations will be over on 25th and the SSFL teams will be announced soon after. The response from the schools has been overwhelming and has notched up our motivation levels. Look forward to some great football during the league,” added Mr. Upadhyay.
The first edition of the league is limited to the Delhi region. However, Stairs will be taking it further to other states in its next edition in 2015.
About Stairs: Stairs is a New Delhi-headquartered not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) which aims to empower the underprivileged youth of India. It is committed to providing opportunities to the young Indians so that they can lead a life of dignity. The NGO, which started in 2000, nurtures the talented sportsmen at the bottom-of-the-pyramid of the society so that they can use this ability as a mean of earning a living and pursue it as a career. Stairs also organises educational and health programmes. It educates the youth about the dignity of labour and equality irrespective of caste, creed or sex. It has nearly 300 centres spread across six states.
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