RFYS 2022-23 Football Season Kicks Off in Jamshedpur

Reliance Foundation Youth Sports football tournament returned to the fore after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a country-wide tournament featuring school and college athletes competing across 20 football centers. The tournament rekindles the aim of creating a cohesive structure of grassroots competition across India and promoting young athlete participation while providing a scouting platform for professional clubs and the national team.

The ball for the 2022-23 RFYS season got rolling at Jamshedpur in the knockout championship on Monday, September 26, 2022. The opening game saw St. Roberts High School beat Kerala Public School 1-0 in the School Girls category at the Tinplate Sports Complex, courtesy of Sneha Kachhap’s third-minute goal.

In the College Boys category, Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial sealed an impressive 5-0 victory against the National Institute of Technology. Sahil Hembrom produced a match-winning performance, scoring all five goals. The other game in this category ended in a goalless draw between R.V.S. College of Engineering and Technology and Patamda Degree College Jalla. However, the latter won the penalty shootout 4-3 to seal qualification for the next round.

Vani Vidya Mandir High School featured in the final match of the day and won 3-1 against Kasidih High School in the Senior Boys category. The two teams were level 1-1 at half-time, however, goals in the 40th and 50th minute of the match enabled Vani Vidya Mandir to get over the line.

Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata are among the 20 cities to witness the return of youthful football fever. More than 2,400 teams are expected to take the field in the tournament, consisting of more than 3,160 matches.

The tournament will be conducted in two formats - Knockout only and Knockout + League. Teams would only be competing in a knockout tournament at 10 centers, including Jamshedpur, while in the other centers, the proceedings will begin with knockout qualifiers, culminating in an extended league.

In the knockout format, the teams will be drawn into a tournament bracket in which the winner of each match will progress to the next round while the losing team will face elimination. Winners of the final match for each category will be declared the City Champions.

The league will consist of eight teams, each playing seven matches. The team that finishes atop the points table in the league format will be crowned City Champions in their respective category. In case two or more teams end up level on points in the league table, higher goal difference resulting from the league matches of the concerned teams, more goals scored, fewer goals conceded and higher overall goal difference are criteria through which a winner will be determined.

The 2022-23 season will also feature some exciting new initiatives for the players and coaches, including special fan engagement days, up-skilling initiatives, player scouting by clubs and special grants for institutions.

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