panjim nov 18 ….. Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecom service providers and Goa Football Development Council (GFDC), today jointly unveiled the ‘Inter Centre League’ trophy of the ‘Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival 2014’ at a gala ceremony at Bambolim Athletic Stadium. The trophy was unveiled at the hands of Shri. Laxmikant Parsekar, Chief Minister of Goa, Mr. Ashish Chandra, Business Head, Maharashtra and Goa, Vodafone India, Dr. Rufino Monteiro, Chairman – GFDC, Aleixo Da Costa, Member Secretary, GFDC and Football stars India International Climax Lawrence, Salgoancar SC Marquee player Scott and Salgaocar SC Coach Malcolm in the presence of more than 1000 kids from the qualifying teams andother dignitaries.
Sharing his views on this unique initiative for young and aspiring football talent in Goa, Ashish Chandra, Business Head – Maharashtra & Goa, Vodafone India said “We are extremely pleased as Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival is getting bigger and better with each passing year. It is very encouraging to see Goa’s young footballers displaying phenomenal skills during the sixth month long annual tournament. We are now all set to bring you some more excitement with the Inter Centre League games scheduled to commence on 28th November. Vodafone truly believes that given the right nutrition, training, coaching and direction, these children can go on to bigger things and opportunities in Football at the club, state and even national level. I congratulate all the qualifying teams and wish them all the very best for the highly competitive games that will delight the participants and audiences over the coming months.”
Member Secretary, Mr Alexio Da Costa whilst thanking the chief minister for never saying NO to GFDC’s invitation and initiatives, expressed his happiness at the efforts of Vodafone to help GFDC over a last 3 years in developing the Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival. He appealed to trainees to take maximum advantage of the efforts been put in by GFDC for their all round development in football right from training to nutrition.
Dr. Rufino Monteiro, Chairman, GFDC added, “As we get to the 2nd part of the 3rd Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival, I am very happy to see the skill and competitiveness displayed by my GFDC trainees. It augurs well for the future course of this tournament and for the rising standard of our state sport. On this occasion today we felicitate 25 of our GFDC youngsters who have grown through training at GFDC and playing in the earlier editions of the Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football festival and have ultimately represented the state of Goa in their age group categories and one of them has played for the country. For this I congratulate my entire GFDC team of trainees and officers and am grateful to Vodafone for their strategic partnership with us in bringing out the best of our trainees. I also thank the Chief Minister Shri. Parsekar and our sports minister Shri, Tawadkar for their unstinted support to GFDC in all our endeavors”.
Chief Minister of Goa, Shri. Laxmikant Parsekar speaking on the occasion commended the efforts of GFDC, and organ setup by this government for development of the state sport, in spreading grassroot football all over Goa and at the same time complimented the Vodafone management for wisely investing in development of this grassroot children, an investment that will rich dividends in the years to come with Goa producing good footballers and not needing to import players for top Goan teams as is the practice now.
The third edition of ‘Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival 2015’, kicked off on September 5, 2015 with the Intra Centre League. At the close of two month long battle in the 31 grassroots GFDC centres, over 1100 kids have qualified from 72 teams in U10 and U13 boys and U13 Girls, in the Inter Centre League. The Inter Centre League begins on November 28th, 2015 and will showcase over 200 matches till the Grand Finale in February 2016.
The 31 centres have been divided into eight zones wherein the teams will play against each other to find a place in the knock stage. The Top team from each zone in each category will make it to the knock out stage and battle it out for the coveted title of the championship.
‘Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival 2015’ is an initiative of Vodafone India in association with Goa Football Development Council (GFDC). The festival was launched in 2013 as a six month long intra and inter-center football championship tournament, featuring teams from grass root centres in Goa, namely Valpoi, Sulcorna, Aldona, Moira, Navelim, Benaulim, Khandepar, Pernem, Arambol, Parra, Arrpora, Mayem, Poira, Sanquelim, Savoi Verem, Marcel, Collem, Paroda, Shiroda, Quepem, Ambaulim, Utorda, Devabhag, Amone and Cuncolim. The tournament has been conceived exclusively for kids up to the age of 13 years. It aims at providing an excellent platform to identify and cultivate young local football talent across the State. This year the festival gets bigger and better with Vodafone partnering with GFDC for the third consecutive year, with the objective of imparting professional training and grooming to deserving upcoming football talent in the villages of Goa.
The matches under the Inter Centre League will be played in the competitive format on a home and away basis, as per FIFA guidelines. Each team will have seven members and have been split into three different categories: boys below 10 and 13 years and girls below 13 years. As in the Intra Circle level, the matches will be played on GFDC center grounds on weekends so that parents attend in huge numbers and even the young ones do not miss out on their academics. The entire festival is being conducted with the involvement of participants’ parents, village elders and other key local personalities as a mode of encouragement and morale boosting tool for the budding stars.
The slogan for the ‘Vodafone GFDC Rising Stars Football Festival 2015’ amply reflects the spirit behind the initiative- ‘YEO PORA, GHE BOL. MAAR MOJA, SHOOT GOAL’.
