CHICALIM: John Paul II Foundation for Sports Goa will be organising in association with St Francis Xaviers Church, Chicalim the second Compassion National's football tournament to be played at Chicalim Panchayat grounds from January 28 to-29.
Seven teams from different states of India are participating in the tournament which includes Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and hosts Goa.
The Compassion National's football tournament is being organised since 2018 in Goa and had seen Karnataka winning the championship in the first edition and Goa as runners up.
The tournament is organised with the objectives to build children belonging to the underprivileged and marginalized community children who are from the orphanages, streets and slums by using the tool of football the beautiful game.
The organisers are providing the participating teams with kit's to all the players. Arrangements for lodging and boarding have been made at Palloti House, Chicalim.
The tournament is for boys under 14 age category and the event is being organised to provide a platform for the boys to look at sports as a career and also to bring about community transformation through the life skills training they receive as a part of the tournament.
The teams comprises of boys from different states where the John Paul II Foundation for Sports Goa has developed collaboration with the organisations working on developing the underprivileged and marginalized communities through the medium of sports.
The Maharashtra team comprises mainly from the slums of Mumbai. Tamil Nadu team has boys from Chennai and Salem while the Karnataka team has boys from the Freedom Project an NGO working in the city of Bangalore dedicated to the upliftment of boys who are mainly from the communities badly in need of rehabilitation and has now become a nursery for providing football players to some of the top clubs in the city of Bangalore.
The Odisha team consists of boys from the most rural and interior villages and have no much exposure to such competitions and they are looking forward to giving their best in the tournament as the first timers in the competition.
The host's Goa team consists of players who have participated in the GFA league under 14 competition of the Tiswadi Zone and emerged winners in the zone.
The players have a platform to exhibit their talent and will have a opportunity to get selected for an international event to be held in the end of the year in one of the neighbouring country.
The Chicalim Parish under the Leadership of Dr Bolmax Pereira as the parish priest is leaving no stone unturned so as to see the participants get the best of hospitality as most boys are orphans or are of single parents.
The matches to be played in the tournament to be played over two days will be on round robin league basis and the winner will be decided by the toppers of the league. Krutesh Sawant, Mahindra K Singh, Siddhant Pawar, Devanand Tate, Atharva Bhagat, Sainath Naik, Aman K Singh, Trosten D’souza, Sufil Tigati, Zeeshan Khan, Shivam Sharma, Vivek Prajapati, Aliston Rocha, Vallen Fernandes, Abhishek Reddy, Shawn Rebello, Akshay Rathod, Shankar Pawar, Ireian Fernandes, Pavan Albert, Devraj are representing Goa with Kenbert Rodrigues, Filbert Pereira and Harshad Naik as officials.