AFA secretary Ankur Dutta addresses the media in Guwahati on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Oct. 16: Football in Assam has received direct corporate support at the junior level for the first time ever with Coca Cola India sponsoring the Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy (under-16) school football tournament here from Monday as part of the company’s nationwide football development programme.

The Guwahati Sports Association (GSA) will organise the tournament involving 14 schools from the city, including one from the Sonapur area on the city outskirts, at Judges’ Field under the banner of the Assam Football Association (AFA).

“On Monday, Nichols High School will take on Srimanta Sankar Academy in the inaugural match of the knockout tournament that will end on October 28,” said GSA general secretary Munin Nobis.

The other schools involved are Don Bosco School, Maligaon, Don Bosco Senior Secondary School, Panbazar, Hindustani Kendriya Vidyalaya, South Point School, Cotton Collegiate HS School, Gurukul Grammar School, Betkuchi High school, Assam Railway HS School, Snehalaya High School, Janajatiya High School and Arya Vidyapith High School, Nobis added.

The AFA will pick up talented players from the tournament and mix them up with the state under-16 probables selected from the inter-district tournament to stitch the team for the Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy Northeast zonal tournament in Agartala in mid-November.

Two teams will qualify from the zone for the national meet likely to be held by the yearend, said AFA secretary Ankur Dutta.

Coca Cola India is sponsoring similar tournaments in 30 cities across the country. The company will also sponsor the national under-16 squad for exposure tours to South Africa and Brazil as part of its three-year sponsorship deal with the All India Football Federation.

Dutta said a programme was being worked out with the company for organising similar tournaments in all the districts by next year. “This is the first time that the grassroots level is receiving direct corporate support,” Dutta said.

Earlier, tea major Williamson Magor had been instrumental in producing footballers through its football academy in Sonitpur district. However, the academy had to down shutters two years back because of internal constraints.

Dutta further took note of Tata Tea Ltd overlooking the Northeast in its school football development programme, which was extended to about 60,000 schoolchildren in the rest of the country. “We will take it up with the company as well as with the AIFF,” he said.