STAIRS School Football League 2’ Kicks Off Today

STAIRS School Football League – 2 (SSFL-2), the biggest school football league in the country, kicked off today in the presence of distinguished sports personalities, government officials and bureaucrats at Thyagraj Sports Complex in New Delhi.

In its second year in Delhi, SSFL – 2 has brought about a difference to about 10,000 children and will continue to multiply its reach as well as impact with each passing year. With participation confirmation from 288 schools comprising 32 girls’ teams and 256 boys’ teams – the league will engage over 4,000 budding footballers in Delhi. The event will witness 600 matches being played over a span of 90 days, making it the biggest as well as the longest ever football league being played at the school level.

The dignitaries present at the launch included

• Shri Bhim Sain Bassi, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Delhi;
• Shri Sanath Jayasuriya, Former International Cricketer and Former Member of Parliament, Sri Lanka
• Shri R K Jain, Group President – Finance & Strategy, Uflex Ltd.
• Shri Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder and Secretary General, STAIRS

The launch event was followed by an interactive session among children and dignitaries and children asked a few intriguing questions to the panel. Interestingly, Government officials and the sports stars present at the launch assured all support to the league and other initiatives of STAIRS in order to encourage and develop sports at the grassroots.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Ashok Chaturvedi, Chairman and Managing Director of Uflex Group said "I am glad to be present at the launch of the biggest school-level tournament the country has ever seen. I have always insisted that without sports, the personality development of a child remains incomplete. Our association with SSFL will help in shaping up the personality of the children- who are the torchbearers of tomorrow. While we are in the business of providing complete flexible packaging solutions world over, socially our focus is to provide a complete personality package through sports particularly to the not so privileged children. We are committed to develop sports at the grassroots as sports help in overall development of not just children but the entire community and thus of the nation. Sports is one of the significant pillars of the education system besides being a universal right of every child. Our support to SSFL is a step towards ensuring that children in Delhi get free access to play football at some of the best sporting facilities across the state."

Uflex Group has committed to support SSFL for the next five years.

"It was just an idea that was conceptualized by STAIRS just a year ago. We had not imagined that within a year it will become the biggest football league and we’ll be managing over 4,000 footballers. The message from the response of the schools and the budding footballers is clear: there is a great talent mushrooming at the grassroots and all that it needs is a right platform and little support. While we have created a largest platform for football talent scouting, we are hoping that the fraternity makes use of this opportunity and the country’s football mentors come forward to select and nurture the potential football stars of the country," said Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder and Secretary General, STAIRS.

The fundamental objectives of SSFL include –

a) Transform the sporting scenario at the grassroots,

b) Uproot all obstacles confronting sporting talent at the hinterland and

c) Nurture future champions and create opportunities for them to excel

Also, with an aim to create opportunity for footballers at the grassroots (mostly underprivileged) STAIRS organized spotting camps across four zones of Delhi. From

around 4,000 children screened this year, the organization chose 130 children to form four teams that will be competing with regular school teams at SSFL – 2.

The event is solely meant for the children under 14 years and under 17 years of age and exactly follows the FIFA World Cup format. It will begin with league matches at over 10 different venues across four zones in Delhi while the semi-final and final games will be played at the central venue. All the school teams intending to participate also have to go through the qualifier rounds.

The league has become one of the most significant ‘talent spotting’ platforms for clubs and bodies seeking to acquire talent right at early adolescence. While many officials and individuals from professional bodies keep their eyes on the budding players during the matches, selectors from international foreign clubs watch ‘live streaming’ of important matches and even call for recorded videos to assess the performance of promising players.

I am a sports man and playing here grassroots sport and also work for sport development of our country.