BSF organises football talent hunt in Tripura

Agartala (Tripura) [India], May 4 (ANI): Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy has kicked off a ten-day long tournament OORJA 2017 Under 19 Football Talent Hunt Tournament at the Swami Vivekananda Maidan in Agartala. The initiative has been taken by the Government of India on "Mission XI Million" for improvement in sports infrastructure to motivate and inspired the young team members to keep up the efforts. The tournament having both boys and girls team was organised by the Border Security Force (BSF) as talent hunt tournament in the state. Expressing his love and passion for football, the Governor emphasized that cricket has turned into game of money but football is the game of the youth and there is a need of improvement of football along with other popular games. He also expressed his deep concern over the deprived state of football in the country and said that in spite of India having a large population of 125 crore could not qualify for the Football World Cup. Coming to the scope of football in North-Eastern states, the Governor said that there is a great passion for the game and recently Aizawl Football club won the "I- League" Football Tournament. He also reiterated the objective of the event to see football proliferating in every nook and corner of the country and lauded that this tournament is surely going to motivate the youth to play and carry the love for the game to greater heights. Roy also praised Olympian gymnast Dipa Karmakar of Tripura who represent the nation and hope that Northeaster region shall have similar lead role in football. The first match was played between Borok Football Academy Killa and Young Darlong Football Association. The players and coaches expressed that such tournament not only encourages them to play better so that they can take part at the national level tournament and represent the nation. Best fifteen players from both boys and girls category from these matches shall qualify and represent at the regional level matches at Shillong and from there regional level payers shall be selected to play at the national level matches. (ANI)