Leading football club Unit-VI Athletic Association has been doing a commendable job by organising the Bhubaneswar Inter-School Football Tournament for 28 years in a row. The 29th edition, featuring more than 400 budding footballers of 24 schools, is set to take place at Unit-VI Boys’ High Ground, Bhubaneswar from Aug 8 to Sept 3, 2017.

Players from this tournament have gone on to represent the state and Tata Football Academy in different national competitions. But the organising club has been struggling to keep the good work going due to insufficient sponsorship. Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) came to rescue last year after Kalinga Marine backed out, ending its 27-year-long funding support to the grassroots-level tournament.

Is this the ground reality of the capital city of Odisha, which is fast emerging as a global sports destination? Hope, sports-loving Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who put Bhubaneswar in global sports map by making the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship a historic success, is equally magnanimous for promotion of sports at the grassroots level.

Coming back to the tournament proper, the 29th edition would feature one new team in Palasuni High School. Teams have been divided into eight groups and after completion of group league, the top team from each group would advance to the quarterfinals.

Kalinga Bidyapitha, Sampur would start as defending champions and Vikash Residential School as last year’s runners-up. The champion team would receive a cash prize of Rs 10,000, while the runners-up side would take home Rs 5,000.
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PHOTO: Unit-VI Athletic Association officials and MCL executive at a press conference in Bhubaneswar on August 4, 2017.