New Delhi: The third season of STAIRS School Football League, world’s biggest football scouting and training programme at the school level, was kicked off by Vijay Goel, Minister of State, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, today at Thyagaraj Sports Complex in New Delhi. Legendary Cricketer and former captain of Sri Lankan Cricket team, Sanath Jayasuriya along with Rajiv Yadav, Secretary, Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports graced the opening ceremony of SSFL-3 with their distinguished presence.

In its third year now, SSFL - 3 will see more than 30,000 School level footballers from 2000 schools of Delhi & Gujarat participating in the tournament. The mega sports event will witness 4000 matches (500 in Delhi and 3500 in Gujarat) being played, making it the biggest as well as the longest ever football league at the school level. A total of 256 teams comprising 128 teams of under 14 boys and 128 teams of under 17 boys will be participating in the tournament. Apart from the boys’ team, the tournament will also see avid participation from 32 girls’ teams in under 14 and under 17 categories.

The launch event was followed by an interactive session between the children and dignitaries. Seeing the enthusiasm among the children, Vijay Goel, Minister of State, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, and other dignitaries expressed their happiness and wished them luck for the matches. They assured all support to the league and other initiatives of STAIRS in order to encourage and develop sports at the grassroots.