Gujarat State Football Association (GSFA) has selected twenty-seven young and talented footballers from Uflex Stairs School Football League (SSFL)-Gujarat for the Gujarat State team. The selected players will represent the state football team in the forthcoming Junior National Championship. Season 3 of Uflex Stairs School Football League (SSFL) Gujarat - in association with GSFA concluded with the selection of these 27 football players amid loud cheer and excitement at the Sports Authority of India Complex, Gandhinagar, today. Conceptualised to identify football talent at early adolescence so that India could get some of the best footballers, SSFL-Gujarat is joined by Uflex, India’s largest flexible packaging company, under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy.
The mega sports event Uflex SSFL-3 saw more than 30,000 school-level footballers from Delhi & Gujarat participating in the tournament. The Championship witnessed avid participation from teams of under 14 boys, under 17 boys and girls’ teams in U-14 and U-17 categories.
Sh. C V Som, Principal Secretary to Government of Gujarat and MD, GSCSC Ltd., who presided over the occasion as the chief guest appreciated the joint effort by SSFL GSFA and wished luck to the selected players. The closing event was followed by a prize distribution ceremony, during which trophies, medals and certificates were given to the winning team and players for showing exemplary performance. Overall, four winning teams – one each from Under 14 Girls, Under 14 Boys, Under 17 Girls, Under 17 Boys lifted the majestic gold plated Champions Trophy while the runners-up received the Grand Silver Trophy.
Congratulating the selected players, Sh. Gulab Chauhan, Secretary, GSFA, said, “We are excited to see that in a short span SSFL in Gujarat has created enormous scouting opportunities at grassroots. Before SSFL, there has been no professionally managed platform of such a scale in the state for young footballers to showcase their talent. Thanks to the SSFL format, we have witnessed development of football in the state. it is for the first time in the history of Gujarat state football that All the semi finalitsts were at par on the points table and it was difficult to choose the winner. Also, in this season of SSFL we witnessed exemplary performance from two districts that were not in the recokning in the earlier seasons. The mission of SSFL is completely in sync with the objective of GSFA which is to build football culture, create multiple opportunities for footballers and introduce sustainable and scalable programmes that can position Gujarat as a sporting state.”
Congratulating the players on the selection, Mr Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder and Secretary General, STAIRS, said, “I congratulate the players who have been selected to the Gujarat State Team and will represent the state at the national level. It is indeed a proud moment for us to see our program SSFL, having increased in scale in such a short span of time. I thank GSFA for facilitating SSFL in Gujarat and hope this will inspire a lot more young talent to come forward and be a part of this program in years to come. It is just the beginning of identifying real talent at the grassroots and giving them an opportunity to play at the national level.” |
Society for Transformation, Inclusion and Recognition through Sports (STAIRS) and Gujarat State Football Association (GSFA) have entered into an agreement to jointly develop the football culture across the state. The organizations have been conducting the STAIRS School Football League (SSFL) together in the state. The objective of the association is to create opportunities for budding players at the grassroots and complement the developing sporting culture in the state of Gujarat.
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