Vision Delhi School League from Wednesday

New Delhi, Sep 2 (UNI) The Vision Delhi programme, aimed at reviving soccer's sagging fortune in India, takes a concrete shape with the school league kicking off here on Wednesday.

All India Football Federation (AIFF) secretary Alberto Colaco told reporters today that 48 teams, mostly public schools, would be in the fray in this tournament.

''This is just the beginning and we are expecting more schools, especially the government ones, joining the fray. The Asian Football Confederation, in collaboration with AIFF and the Delhi Soccer Association, has conducted three workshops as part of our preparation and we hope the school league will be a success,'' Mr Colaco said here.

Apart from Delhi, the state of Manipur has been selected for the other pilot projects and Mr Colaco said the northeastern state would also have its school league later this month.

''The progress in Manipur has been one of the best in Asia and the school league there will start on September 9 with 32 under-11 teams,'' he informed.

Both here and in Manipur, a four-member spotter team would be scouting for talents and the selected students would be asked to join special camps during school holidays.

Meanwhile, the AIFF secretary also revealed that the federation was assessing other states as well for launching similar projects.

''We just finished assessing Punjab, Chandigarh, Sikkim and Karnataka and have other states in our list for we want to expand the scope of the project,''' he said.

Mr Colaco also announced the appointment of Umesh Sood and Naseer Ali as working chairman and chief coordinator of the project.

UNI AY DH PC1538