A delegation of seven kids - five journalists, coach and a player from Renown Football Academy represented Sri Lanka at the eighth session of the Gazprom International Children’s Social Programme, Football for Friendship (F4F) usually held in the host city of the Champions League final but held online for the first time due to the present COVID-19 pandemic.
This year children from more than 100 countries participated in the final series of events featuring online training sessions, graced by Brazil football legend Reberto Carlos, workshops to teach good sportsmanship and values behind the game and the main event - the 2020 Football for Friendship eWorld Championship with 32 teams.
The aim of the programme was to cultivate respect for different cultures and nationalities in children from different countries through football and promote basic human values such as friendship, equality, fairness, health, peace, devotion, victory, traditions and honour. The programme was supported by FIFA, UEFA, UN, Olympic and Paralympic Committees.
The five young journalists were Ravindu Dias from Gateway College, Izzath Raji from Carey College, M. Raashid Asif from Wesley College, Ilavenyl Senthilkumar from Methodist College and Jaanvi Suneree. The young coach was Umantha Perera from Royal Institute and the young player was Crispin Rohit Peiris from St. Joseph’s College, Colombo.
Ravindu Dias, Izzath Raji and M. Raashid Asif scored maximum points for their assignments, which included news, writing and reporting. Only eight youngsters got full marks for their assignments, of which three were from Sri Lanka. Ilavenyl Senthilkumar was one of the youngest journalists in the event at 12 years old and was placed in the top 10 while Jaanvi Suneree was commended for her video presentation. The Young Coach Umantha Perera did exceptionally well in the programme. He was one of the top scoring coaches of the eWorld Championship.
The Young Player Rohit Peiris was the top points scorer of the eWorld Championship and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Championship.
The International Football for Friendship Forum was held for four days and an Academy Award was introduced this year to encourage the initiatives on online sports training, social initiatives and cooperation in the field of children’s football and promoting these ideas globally.
Renown Football Academy is part of Renown Sports Club, one of the leading football clubs in Sri Lanka.
The Academy has taken major steps to develop football at junior level and have been sponsoring the Sri Lanka Schools’ Football Association’s All Island Under-18 tournament - the main tournament in the Sri Lanka schools football calendar - for the last four years.
There are presently more than 300 kids in their two Academies of which more than 50 are girls. The coaching staff at the Academies include several head coaches of Champions League clubs and all of them are Asian Football Confederation licensed coaches.
They gave an assurance the seven kids will act as Ambassadors of Football for Friendship in Sri Lanka and will be supported in all their social projects and thanked the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Namal Rajapaksa for the support he has rendered. The Academy said that several initiatives will be taken to develop football in schools and grassroots level in future in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders. (AN)