AGARTALA, April 24 (TIWN): Border Security Force, Tripura Frontier is organising “OORJA2017 CAPFs U-19 Football Talent Hunt Tournament” in the first phasefrom1stto 10thMay 2017. Total Sixteenfootball teams eight each of boys and girls of various schools and sports clubs from Tripura State will participate in the first phase of the tournament. The tournament will be inaugurated by His Excellency the Governor of Tripura ShriTathagata Roy on 1st May 2017 at 3:00 PM at Swami VivekanandMaidan, Agartala.

In the month of October 2017, India is going to host Under-17 FIFA World Cup Football Tournament for the very first time in the history of football in India. While emphasizing successful hosting of the event, Govt. of India has decided that FIFA World Cup must be a catalyst for change, the tipping point for football in the country, which can only be done by creating a mass movement around it. The name thus suggested and recommended for the tournament is “OORJA 2017- CAPFs U-19 Football Talent Hunt Tournament”. The event has been designed keeping the objective in mind to give an opportunity to every child of the country to play football.The legacy programme of FIFA U-17 World cup “Mission XI million”has been planned to take the beautiful game of football to at least 11 million boys and girls across the country.The objectives of the tournament are to be part of mission XI million, to create fervour among the youth of India towards football, to select promising players to represent our country in Asian Championship and to recruit young and emerging players in CAPFs.

On the directions of MHA, an under-19 Football tournament (Boys & Girls) is being jointly organised by CAPFs under the aegis of All India Police Sports Control Board. The tournament will be organised in 03 phases enlisting separate matches for boys and girls. First phase will be conducted from 1^st to 10^th May 2017, second phase from 8^th to 25^th June 2017 and third phase from 8^th to 25^th July 2017. In the first phase State/UT wise responsibility of CAPFs has been assigned to conduct the event. BSF will conduct the first phase matches in 07 states including Tripura, WB, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan and Andaman & Nicobar Island, consisting of 08 teams each of boys and girls from every State. Upon conclusion of first phase one combined team both for boys and girls from every state will be selected for participation in second phase. Total 36 teams from all over India will be selected for the second phase of the event.In the second phase selected teams will be grouped into six zones andeach CAPFs will conduct matches in thezones assigned to them. Team Tripura is grouped in Shillong, Meghalaya zone. Topper team of each zone of second phase i.e 06 teams will qualify for the third phase. Third phase matches will be conducted at Delhi jointly by SSB and CRPF. A Cub named “Gabru” is the mascot for the tournament. A logo named “OORJA-2017” has also been designed and released for the tournament.

            For smooth conduct of the first phase in Tripura state, variousorganising committees have been formed.Separate committees for Jury of Appeal and selection of teams for the second phase have also been formed. The matches will be played at Swami VivekanandMaidan andAssam Rifles Ground, Agartala. The prizes for first phase are Rs 50,000 /- for winner team, Rs 30,000 /- for Runners up and Rs 20,000 /- for third place.  A running Trophy will be rewarded to the winner in each phase. The winner trophy in Tripura for boys is named as “Raju Ghosh Trophy” and for girls is named as “GultiChaudhari Trophy”. In addition, there will be trophies/prizes for best player of the tournament, best Goalkeeper and best scorer.The teams for boys and girls and fixture in pools are given below:

Boys

Girls

The teams along with their managers, coaches and other staff will be comfortably accommodated at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel, Agartala. Tripura State Schools, Youth Affairs & Sports Department, Tripura State Football Association, Sports Authority of India, Tripura State Police and Assam Rifles are also associated in organising the event. Banks and PSUs like State Bank of India, GAIL India Ltd, LIC of India and UCO Bank have also extended help to BSF for smooth conduct of the tournament in Tripura.