 |
|
 |
KNOCKOUT TOURNEY DRAWS TOP TEAMS
Casino Royale Goa and Faria Sports Management believe that striking it rich for Goan football won’t come by merely casting the dice.
The Casino Royale Faria Gold Cup 2009, set to commence on May 16th 2009, represents a plan with an eye to enhance Goa’s place as the foremost football centre in the country, according to Francis Faria, Chairman of Faria Sports Management. In the history of Goa’s biggest sporting football event, for the first time ever Casino Royale Goa in association with Faria Sports Management will stage the “Casino Royale Faria Gold Cup 2009”, an inter club knock-out tournament to be held between May 16th to 31st at Cansaulim Sports Complex ground. The initiative has been taken noticing the interest and commitment towards football by the youth in Goa.
The invitation tournament has drawn some of Goan soccer’s big guns, The tournament will be first of its kind where 14 teams will be participating in a private inter-club tournament, which will be played on a ‘knock-out basis’. Tournament will consist of teams from I-league, the Professional circuit, First division and other prominent clubs from Goa.
Fourteen teams will duel for honours at the Cansaulim Sports Complex over 13 matches for a Rs. 1 lakh top prize and a rolling trophy worth Rs. 30,000/-. The runners-up will collect Rs. 50,000/- and their silverware worth Rs. 20,000/-.
Individual prizes for best goalkeeper, striker, midfielder and defender along with man of the match awards for each match will also be on offer in the event supported by other sponsors such as Puma, Cloud 9, Hawk Eye, Nivia, Yatra.com, Pepsi, Club Mahindra, Prudent Media, Margarita, Pentagon and Rockingoa.com.
Faria revealed plans to boost Goan soccer, for which the event is planned to be a prelude to. “We are planning an international club competition which will include a team each from Thailand, Nepal and Sri Lanka sometime next year between the conclusion of the I-League and the commencement of the World Cup”, he said.
Casino Royale CEO Arun Kapoor was upbeat about playing a role in Goan sports. “Goa is a gorgeous place and we want to boost its lifestyle via sport and building bigger social accountability” he said.
Faria Sports Management, on their part, want to take soccer to a higher level in Goa. “There’s immense talent here and we dream of a Goan youngster making it to a European league”, he affirmed. Faria Sports Management has its own team – Faria Strikers, a young and highly talented team, and also a sports academy- Soccer Masters Academy, formed for the development of children from the age of nine onwards, which is managed by Faria Foundation Trust.
One can then understand the organisation’s iniative-from running Faria Strikers, a keenly competitive side instituted a year ago, to its Soccer Masters Academy that develops the skills of over 100 children of St. Anthony’s Majorda, through the Faria Foundation Trust.
Faria revealed that plans are afoot to build an academy to take care of the children’s education as well because, in his words “education and sports are two sides of the same coin”.
|
