‘Oorja’ to pep up football lovers in city

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 30

The ‘Oorja’ CAPFs Youth U-19 Football Talent Hunt Tournament for Boys and Girls in Punjab state was kicked off today at an impressive curtain raiser ceremony held at Ftr HQ BSF in the city.

The tournament will start on May 5 at an impressive and colourful opening ceremony which will be held at Ashwini Stadium, BSF Campus. The ‘Oorja’ CAPFs Youth U-19 Football Tournament will simultaneously start in 36 states and UTs of India. Youths of India will showcase their talent in football during this tournament. The tournament has been recognised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

Mukul Goel, Inspector General, Frontier BSF Punjab, in his address, welcomed the gathering at the event. Giving the background of the tournament, he said the tournament would draw a spectacular gathering of youths from all over Punjab and would create fervour for the game ahead of the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in India in October 2017.

He further said that the tournament would be engaging teams of u-19 boys and girls of Punjab and more than 32 matches will be played during this tournament.

He added that the objectives of the tournament were to be part of Mission XI Million, to create fervour among youths of India towards football, to select promising players to represent our country in Asian Championship and to recruit young and emerging players in CAPFs.

The tournament will be conducted in three phases in different states and prize money of Rs 1 crore is at stake. Different teams from schools, federations and other bodies are going to contest win the prize money. This tournament also aims to produce a pool of youth talent for the Indian football team.

Ftr HQ Punjab, Border Security Force has been entrusted with the responsibility to organise the first phase of this tournament in Punjab state. The logo of ‘Oorja’ was also unveiled to the gathering with the mission statement “Arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached”. The mascot of the tournament “Gabru”- The cub was also presented. “Gabru” represents the youthfulness and energy for which the tournament is planned.

Inder Singh, Arjuna awardee, the brand ambassador of the tournament for Punjab, was also present at the ceremony. During, the Curtain Raiser Ceremony, the Oorja Anthem was played by the BSF Punjab Frontier Orchestra which explained the real meaning of “Oorja” to the audience.