Expolanka powers Youth Cup Soccer Tourney
CFL President R.Puvanandiran (third from left) receives the sponsorship cheque for the U-19 City Football League Championship from Jagath Pathirana, C.E.O. of Expo Lanka. Others in the picture (from left)-M.Hishamdeen, Treasurer, CFL, M.Premadasa, Deputy President, CFL, Aabid Akram, President, Expo Sports.
The second edition of the Inter club under-19 Soccer Tournament conducted by the City Football League(CFL) for the Expolanka Youth Cup will kick off from 8 January onwards at the City Football League grounds. After successfully completing the inaugural tournament, the CFL opted to increase the number of teams to 18 from 8 facilitating more teams to engage in the game while attracting more players, especially from the youth segment.
These 18 teams are slated in four groups with defending champions Java Lane is placed in group ‘B’ while last year’s runner-up Cooray is listed in group ‘A’. These groups consist of five teams while the other two groups C and D includes four teams each. At the end of the round robin stage matches, the respective winners of each group will be eligible to qualify for the quarter-finals which is scheduled to commence from 19 February with the semifinals are to kick off on the 5 and 6 March while the grand final will be held on 12 March. All matches will be hosted at their home venue with three matches are to be played each day. The first match is to commence at 8.30 a.m. while the remaining two are to be played at 3 and 4.30 p.m. respectively. Until the quarter-final stage, the matches will be played for one hour and from there it will competed for 90 minutes. The winners will carry away Rs. 100,000 with the Championship Trophy while the runner up team will receive Rs. 75,000. The Most valuable player (Golden Boot), Best Goalkeeper of the tournament and Player of the final too will carry away a trophy. Expolanka Group has got o board as the main sponsor with a sponsorship amount of Rs.500,000.
“We are delighted to conduct the second edition of this tournament with more teams after a long lay over due to the pandemic. We hope this year’s tournament will be competed at the highest level involving the players from the school arena.”
“We are thankful to the media who have played a pivotal role in granting publicity without whom no tournament could be successful. We also thank our main sponsor Expolanka for their magnanimous gesture for coming forward to sponsor this event. We expect a successful tourney.” Said R. Puvanandiran the President of CFL.
“We as Expolankians are privileged to sponsor a tournament of this nature. We don’t look at race, creed and gender but like to support sports in the country. At Expolanka Soccer has taken the top priority with our MD Saif Yusuf who is also instrumental in supporting this sponsorship has played a key role in developing the game in the country. We as sponsors are extremely happy to see the young players playing this game, especially children from schools. We hope the tournament will be played in the best spirits and wish all the best for the participating teams to win this event and organizers to conduct a successfully tournament.” Said Jagath Pathirana, C.E.O. of Expo Lanka.
Group A – Young Silver, Saunders, Maligawatte Youth, Cooray, Victory
Group B – Java Lane, Viking SC, Colombo FC, Slave Island XI, Ferguson Youth
Group C – Rudra, Colombo Veterans, Renown, United
Group D – Baddowita United, Moragasmulla, Colpetty United, Blacksquare