The 2012 edition of the Subroto Cup inter-school football tournament will have two European teams as the Indian Air Force hopes to turn a new leaf in the country’s oldest school tournament with added corporate support and new ideas.
The tournament will kick off on September 3 and 78 teams in various age-groups will playing 125 matches in a span of two months.
FC Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine and Cardinal Heenan College from the UK will be vying for honours with their Indian counterparts in the under-17 category.
The Subroto Cup, which began in 1960, is one of the oldest tournaments in the country and boasts of participation from over 20,000 schools across the country.
Addressing the media at the launch of the 2012 edition of the Subroto Cup, Air Marshal J.N. Burma said, “So far teams from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and other South Asian countries have taken part in the event.
“These teams received tremendous support from football lovers and we felt that it was the right time to bring in teams from Europe,” Burma said in capital on Thursday.
In addition, the Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society has expanded the inter-school girls tournament nationally and for the first time, 17 schools representing all regions of the country will vie for the title plus one girl’s team from Afghanistan.
“We plan to introduce an Under-14 girls tournament in the future so that we can identify forty talented girls who will be called ‘Subroto Girls” and are modeled like the “Subroto Boys.”
“These girls will be groomed and their skills honed by the SMSES,” added Air Marshal Burma.