One-thousand players to be seen in action in KYI Leisure Leagues Inter-District Tournament beginning December 30
Karachi, December 25: Leisure Leagues is organizing Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI) Leisure Leagues Inter-District Football Tournament, beginning December 30 simultaneously at five venues in Karachi, with 20 matches to be played on the first day.
A total of 100 teams – twenty teams from each of the five districts namely District South, Central, East, Malir and West will be seen in action during the grand tournament. More than nine hundred matches will be played to eventually identify ‘Leisure Leagues Karachi Champion’.
Each team will comprise of ten players. Seven players play at a time for a team in the Leisure Leaguers format. There is no restriction of rolling of substitution in the game.
Each player participating in the tournament will receive free kit and football shoes.
Chairman World Group Mehmood Trunkwala said: “In line with our long standing commitment to giving back to the people of Pakistan, we continue to provide opportunities for the underprivileged youth of Karachi through sports. This initiative will help keep them away from negative activities. And channel their energy in the right direction.”
Leisure Leagues Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ishaq Shah said: “With this tournament, we aim to provide a platform for underprivileged footballers, mostly young players, to perform. This is in line with Trunkwala Family and World Group’s vision of promoting football in Pakistan. These types of sports events help our youth to use their energies in the right place. We believe this tournament would also keep our youth away from bad activities and also develop a taste for healthy activities while improving their football skills.”
On 23rd December, Leisure Leagues also held a training workshop for referees and match supervisors at 16-Star Football Ground in order to prepare them for the forthcoming mega tournament.
Leisure Leagues Chief Area Manager Pakistan, Shahroze Rizvi taught the referees and supervisors theory regarding Leisure Leagues rules and regulations.
Meanwhile Riaz Ahmed, Area Manager Karachi and Media Coordinator, practically demonstrated the application of Leisure Leagues rules and regulation to the referees and match supervisors. A total of 25 referees and 15 match supervisors have been hired by Leisure Leagues for the coming tournament.
GM Operations and Marketing Leisure Leagues Zabe Khan said: “This tournament will not only benefit upcoming footballers but would also help football officials find a way to earn. We want to promote football in a way that it benefits everyone, including technical football officials. We also have big plans ahead of us. Hopefully we will be able to play our part in serving the country by promoting football in a true manner.”
The twenty teams of a district will be divided into two groups – Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’. Each team in a group will play 18 matches, two matches against every other team in the Group. A total of 900 matches will be played in the first double-league stage.
Top teams from Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ will play District final and a District Champion will emerge. Subsequently, the champions from the five districts will play in a ‘Champions League’, playing one match against each other. The top team from the league will become ‘Leisure Leagues Karachi Champions’.
Leisure Leagues is holding tournaments across the country including Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Mardan, Quetta and Rawalpindi. Jacobabad and Gilgit are next in line. Leisure Leagues is looking forward to enhance their presence in more cities in near future.
The city champions of Leisure Leagues will then play in Leisure Leagues National Tournament, tentatively in March 2018.
The South District venue is Lyari’s Gabol Park Football Ground. District Central matches will be played at 16-Star Football Ground. District East matches are scheduled to take place at Ansar Union Football Stadium. Malir district matches will be held at Mohammadi Stadium. Khyber-Muslim Football Stadium will be the venue for District West matches.
