Mumbai – Football News India

Mumbai’s Premier Football League 2016 won by Kick FC

March 23, 2016 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

The 4^th edition Premier Football League was held at the Ascend International ground from 7 February to 13 March 2016 on Sunday mornings. The league was organised by PIFA.

There were 32 teams, 250 players playing in 4 age categories – U11, U13, U16 and open age.

This year the tournament was played on a league format with the winners declared on the highest number of points after all teams played one another. It was one of the closest contested league this season with all winners being confirmed on the last day.

The Open Category was won Kick FC headed by Prasham Shah and the Bajaj brother Yash & Kabir. Runners up – OIS ASB headed by Davi Netto, an ex Brazilian Club player.

The winners of the U16 category was Project Mayhem captained by Amaan Kharachiwala, they pipped Angry Bulls Captained by Ryan Pontis on goal difference.

The winners of the U13 category was Panthers from Ecole Mondiale, captained by Aditya Shivkumar, they too won on a one goal difference over Youngstars captained by Jordan Narohna.

The U10 was won by OIS United by one point beating Jedi Knights.

The event Energy Drink partner was Fruit Shoot and Refreshment partners was Fruit Aqua.

PIFA – First Indian academy to train at Spanish FA facilities‏

June 9, 2015 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

This summer PIFA organised a football camp to Madrid, their 33^rd international camp. The camp was held from May 18-28, 2015 at the Spanish FA headquarters. The camp included coaching sessions by Spanish UEFA Pro License coach Jose Rico Huerta everyday. The right skills and tactics were inculcated to the players which was tested when they played friendly matches against CDE Amistad de Alcoron U16 & U12 team. The U16 match was won by PIFA 7-3 while the juniors lost valiantly 1-2.

During the camp the campers got a tour of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and museum had the kids excited seeing the changing rooms, the bench, the stadium and the 10 UEFA Champions league trophies. Later, the children were taken on a tour of the beautiful city of Madrid as well as visited the Spanish FA museum.

During the week the campers got to attend the last game of the La Liga season at the Santiago Barnebau, they got to see the one of the wolds best player, Cristiano Ronaldo scored 3 goals in the 7-3 demolition of Getafe FC, a match to remember. The children were also treated to another match, this time an exhibition match between the Real Madrid Legends and Spanish Team legends. The children got to see Hierra and Morientes in action.

However, the best moment of the camp was meeting Spanish Team coach & legend Vincent del Bosque, he was kind enough to spend time with us and gave autographs. The children got to see the Spanish women team as well the U20 men train.

Sadly all good things come to an end; the campers were rewarded with participation certificates from coach Heurto along with lots of memories to cherish.

ABOUT PIFA

Premier India Football academy (PIFA) is a grassroots football development initiative dedicated to raising the bar in football programming across the country. Established in 2003, its objective is “To be the best, train with the best”. In a very short time we have demonstrated success through our organization of the Premier Football League (PFL), Soccer camps and trips to major international football destinations. PIFA has a professional team playing in the Indian National league – I-league 2nd division – PIFA Colaba FC as well as in the Mumbai leagues.

Emile Heskey at PIFA Foundation and Leicester City FC’s grassroot football development program

December 15, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

PIFA Foundation organised a four day grassroot football development program conducted by Leicester City Football Club coaches Matt Wilcock & Stewart Johncock. The training aims to reach out to 250 children.

The delegation is headed by Leicester City FC ambassador Emile Heskey, he interacted with the young players during and after the session.

The children experienced and enjoyed the 60 minute Premier League Academy coaching.

The third day was spent with the PIFA mens team at the Churchgate training ground. Emile Heskey and the coaches interacted with the players and participated in the training.

The fourth and final day of the grassroot session will be held at the Cooperage Stadium specially for the underprivileged children from Colaba, a community program supported by the PIFA Foundation.

The PIFA Foundation aims at providing children from less privileged backgrounds the same opportunities enabling them to stay off the streets and empower them to change their futures through football.

PIFA Foundation are the sponsors of the PIFA Colaba FC team playing the I league 2nd division, U19 I league as well U17, U15 and a women’s team.

Crystal Palace Tie up with Mumbai City FC

November 25, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

English Premier League club Crystal Palace has tied up with Mumbai ISL franchise Mumbai City FC. Mumbai City FC along with Star Sports and Crystal Palace will stage a trial on thursday December 11th for 16-19 years olds in Mumbai.

12 players selected from this trial will be invited to perform their skills at the Barclays Premier League’s international fan park in Mumbai where live Premier League matches are to be screened.

A Crystal Palace delegation, led by club ambassador Mark Bright, will be assessing the selected footballers and the winner of the Play for Palace will travel to London to train with Crystal Palace’s young prospects.

Mark Bright who has scored more than 100 goals for Palace was quoted saying,

“This will be the chance of a lifetime. The winner of the competition will get a fantastic experience playing at the Academy and then go back to India to become an ambassador for Palace.

“This is a unique initiative. Everyone has a favourite local team and favourite overseas team – we want football fans in India to follow us.

“We know cricket is the number one sport in India, but football is global and it would be great to see an Indian-born player in the Premier League one day. They would become an idol and an inspiration”.

Crystal Palace chief executive Phil Alexander was quoted in the media saying, “We are very excited to be going to India to show ourselves to a new army of fans. The Premier League is booming in India and it’s a great chance for us to extend the club’s reach”.

A Mumbai City FC spokesman is also quoted in the reports. He said : “India,and Mumbai in particular, has a lot of football talent waiting to be harnessed and promoted. This initiative will provide a great platform for the youth of the city to showcase their skills and win the opportunity of a lifetime”.

Bad day in the media for Indian Super League?

September 15, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Indian Super League had a bad field day in the press yesterday.

A news piece that appeared on Livemint did not cut a good picture.

The article talks about IMG-R and Star’s difficulty in finding suitable associate sponsors for the league. Indian Super league had earlier announced Hero MotoCorp Ltd as the title sponsor. It was also mentioned that team sponsorships were equally hard to come by. Average advert rates for the front of the players’ jersey is Rs.5 crore, the back costs Rs.3 crore and each sleeve is priced at Rs.1-1.5 crore according to the article.

The second one should concern the franchise owners. An article in www.afaqs.com talks about how the franchise owners might suffer because unlike IPL in which a Dollar-Rupee ratio cap is existing, ISL has no such measures. The article claims that exchange rate fluctuations could result in 10% variation in the pay outs for foreign players and thereby escalating costs for the franchises. Such financial strain for franchises in the very early stages of the league might not bode well for its future. Read the article here.

Well, before this is wound up it has to be mentioned that Indian Super League sort of papered over all these cracks by the end of the day when the signing of former French International Nicolas Anelka was announced by the Mumbai franchise.

I.M. Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri launches Indian Football Foundation

January 31, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Indian Football Foundation (IFF) launched

On 29th January night at a glittering ceremony the Indian Football Foundation (IFF) was launched at Kohinoor Continental, JB Nagar, Andheri (East). IFF supported by Lions Club of Bombay Willingdon Crescent.

IFF is the brainchild of,

Shri Dinesh Nair – Indian International
Shri I M Vijayan- Arjuna Awardee
Shri Godfrey Pereira – Chatrapati Shivaji Awardee
Shri Jo Paul Anchery – Indian International
Shri Jacinto D’silva – Indian International

IFF Academy’s objective is to provide the mainstream of national football a perennial pool of young footballers trained and oriented to international standards.

A team of Certified coaches will provide training to age groups U – 8 to U-14, especially Grass Roots. Also in association with Lions Club of Willingdon Crescent the academy hopes to provide free coaching to talented Underprivileged Children.

In the coming year Lions are planning to take the Soccer fiesta to multiple centers thus multiplying impact while helping in spotting talent at the Grassroots.

Lions Willingdon Promotes Football

Lions Club of Bombay Willingdon Crescent’s Mission is to “Create a Multi Sport Facility” at the Lions Municipal Sports Complex , near Milan Sub-way , Santacruz (West)

Our Vision is to “Nurture Talent at the Grassroots”. Towards this end, the Lions organised the first edition of the “Lions Willingdon Soccer Fiesta” from 5^th to 19^th January 2014. 117 teams participated across 7 categories for the prestigious trophies.

The Soccer Fiesta was inaugurated by Climax Lawrence, ex-India Captain and Yusuf Yakubu, Ghana World cup player. Both of them currently play for Mumbai FC.

Lions Willingdon Stars – a team of India internationals led by I M Vijayan, Godfrey Pereira, Jo Paul Anchery, Jacinto D’silva, Steven Dias and Dinesh Nair played an exhibition match against the “Best of Corporate” team on the finale day in front of early 500 football lovers who witnessed the match and the award ceremony.

On the Finale day U 10 Futsal comprising of over 100 children was appreciated and enjoyed by all.

Results “Soccer Fiesta – Jan 2104”

U – 12

Winner : St. Annes Malad
Runner Up : Lycum Sports Club

U – 14

Winner : KSA

Open Clubs

Winner : MYJ – IC Extension
Runner Up : Macabi

Veterans

Winner : Geostanne United
Runner Up : Freunds

NGO

Winner : Don Bosco Shelter
Runner Up : Rainbow Foundation

Women’s

Winner : Bandra Packers
Runner Up : Companeros

Corporate

Winner : Indigo Airlines
Runner Up : Online Tourism & Freight Pvt Ltd

Tentative dates for the next Soccer Fiesta – 6th to 21st December 2014

Manchester City to Hold Football Clinics in India

November 28, 2013 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Manchester City FC football coaching clinics, a grassroots program for young children that aims at improving their technical football skills, will take place in the Capital from December 1 to 8.

The clinics will also include coaching on positioning, dribbling, passing and shooting the ball and will be conducted in a fun atmosphere with emphasis on teamwork and interacting with the coaches to benefit from their vast knowledge.

This is the first joint initiative taken by Etihad Airways and equity alliance partner, Jet Airways, since the transaction for the purchase of 24 per cent of Jet Airways by Etihad Airways was concluded on November 20.

This is Etihad Airways’ first coaching initiative to be held in India aiming to promote sport among the Indian youth.

Etihad Airways is the main partner and shirt sponsor of Manchester City FC and has hosted several football clinics in Abu Dhabi as well as in China, Seychelles and Nigeria.

A coaching team headed by Manchester City’s Community Ambassador Alex Williams MBE, an ex-professional goalkeeper with the club, will visit Mumbai and Delhi to lead 11 training sessions for up to 1,000 children.

The week-long activities will kick off in Mumbai with mall promotions at High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel followed by a four-day coaching program in Mumbai.

The team will then travel to Delhi where they will deliver a similar grassroots coaching program and conclude with a major promotion at the DLF Emporio Mall, Vasant Kunj.

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways chief commercial officer said: “Etihad Airways has a proud tradition of hosting grass roots sporting events globally and we are very excited to be bringing our Manchester City FC football clinics to India to celebrate the completion of our partnership with our equity partner Jet Airways.”

Gaurang Shetty, Senior VP, Commercial, Jet Airways said: “We recognise our responsibility to society and stand committed to creating more such opportunities for the development of Indian youth by way of the programs we conduct.”

Source : PTI

Mumbai Tigers Vying for the Indian Super League

October 22, 2013 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Mumbai Tigers, the team which withdrew from I-league is looking for a chance to appear in the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL). With the withdrawal from I-league many even feared for the existence of the club. It is heartening to know the team is alive and kicking.

“Top I-League clubs and IMG – Reliance are approaching the club for players. We are hoping that we will be allowed to play in the IMG – Reliance tournament. We are waiting for the management’s decision on the matter,” Paresh Shivalkar of Mumbai Tigers told TOI.

The team is currently participating in Nandakarni Cup in Chembur.

Bolton Wanderers to Take 80 Mumbai Kids to their Reebok Stadium

October 11, 2013 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Mumbai IT firms St Angelo’s and OCE has reached a five year deal with Bolton Wanderers FC for acquiring expertise in football development. As part of this initiative, 80 youth from Mumbai will get a chance to attend a 10 day football camp at the Reebok Stadium.

Bolton Wanderer’s Chairman Phil Gartside took part in a function which kicked off the association between the Mumbai firms and the English club. Gartside also stressed unlike other European clubs trying to set up academies in India Bolton Wanderers is different from the others.

“If you look at football now, it’s a big commercial world. The bigger teams, and we are not one of them, they are looking at commercial advantage. We are not doing that. What we are trying to do is use football in a much more modest way for education and maybe find a footballer. Gartside said to TOI.

“If the student likes the taste of a 10-day programme then it encourages him to do the year long programme. We have a two year programme of international B-tech at level three. The benefit of that is he spends two years training as an athlete as well.”

Gartside also said that Bolton is not having any plans to open an academy in India as they are concerned about the dilution of quality while embarking on such an endeavor and stressed the importance on investing in grassroots to develop football in India.

Bolton Wanderers Football Club to tie up with Mumbai firm

October 3, 2013 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Bolton Wanderers Football Club to tie up with Indian IT firm St Angelo’s Oce. Reports suggest chairman Phil Gartside will be in Mumbai to ink a deal for a 10-day residential football coaching and personality development camp in England.

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