Gujarat State Football Association (GSFA) President Shri Parimal Nathwani announced the first-ever GSFA Club Championship for Gujarat football players which will begin on March 5, 2022, and will be played in two phases over the course of three months. The games would take place on weekends (Saturday and Sunday).
In total, 106 home and away matches will be played in 11 Gujarat cities. Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar, Ankleshwar, Vapi, Godhara, Dantiwada, and Anand are among them.
There are 33 teams in total, with 990 footballers divided into 17 senior, 09 junior, and 07 sub-junior categories.
Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara, and Bhavnagar participate in all 3 categories, while Gandhinagar, Anand, Surat, and Bharuch compete in 2nd. Jamnagar, Godhra, Banaskantha, and Vapi are only competing in 1st category. In a squad of 30 players, each team can register a maximum of three foreigners.
Gujarat’s GSFA affiliated club/team can compete in the Senior Club Championship. On any given match day, a squad of 30 players will be allowed to select 20 players. It is also required that in the senior category, a team have a minimum of 5 players under the age of 20 (born in 2003/2004), with at least three of them always on the field of play during a match.
In Junior Club Championship, club-team of Gujarat having players under the age of 17 may participate. The intention of GSFA for this age groups is ‘Catching them Young, identity the future talents and nurture them down the line, Shri Nathwani said.
Further, he said, “In Sub Junior Club Championship, players under the age of 15 may participate. This is to popularize the game, identify the raw talent from the grass-root level itself.”
“In some districts we do have school tournaments but to have a proper club championship in this age group will also generate a temperament for football and make it more broad-based”, he added.
All the winners and runners up in junior and sub junior would be qualifying for the final phase. During the final phase all the qualified teams would be playing against each other at a centralized venue. The final phase matches would be shown live on GSFA Youtube channel.
Showing matches live would also generate a lot of interest among the players and also the parent to their son playing the game from their living room.
The winner and Runners Up teams would be awarded a Rolling trophy and medals The senior category champions will be nominated for playing Heague qualifiers from Gujarat
The benefit of having a club championship is that the players get the most playing time possible, and the state association can identify and groom real talent for the national championship in the future.
The GSFA’s club championship initiative fits the AIFF’s strategy of promoting club culture in the country for the development of football sports, similar to what is done in Europe and other football-playing countries, according to Shri Nathwani.
During the media briefing, along with the GSFA president Shri Nathwani, the other office bearers who remained present included vice presidents Shri Pradipsinh Vaghela, Shri Arunshinh Rajput Shri Jignesh Paatil and Hanif Ginwala who shared the information Secretary Shri Mulrajsinh Chudasama conducted the meeting. Treasurer Shri Mayank Buch proposed a vote of thanks