Uttaranchal wins Fair Play trophy

Chennai, Dec 29 (UNI) Uttaranchal bagged the Fair Play trophy with a tally of 55 points in the AIFF Under-13 National Football Festival held at Panchetti, about 40 km from here this evening.

The champion team excelled in football by getting more green cards, each card carrying five points for their good behavioural conduct on the field, quiz, football skill and cultural competitions.

Goa finished second with 50 points and Manipur, who had lost their last league match to Tamil Nadu, finished third gaining 25 points.

All India Football Federation (AIFF) Secretary Alberto Colaco gave away the trophies to the winners in the presence of Hyundai Motors India Vice-President G S Ramesh and Velammal Educational Trust M V Muthuramalingam.

Later talking to UNI, Mr Colaco said the festival devised as part of Asian Football Confederation Development project, was aimed at promoting football at grass roots level.

''This will enable these kids to develope a passion for the sport and take it up as a career'', he said.

About 30 probables from this event would be selected for a national camp and the Indian team for the under-13 AFC Football championship to be held at Bangladesh in May, would be picked from among these boys.

Launched in February last year at Kalyani in Bengal, the event was held in Chandigarh in December 2005 and now in Chennai.

It would be staged in a different centre next year.

In all 27 states fielded their entries of which three had pulled out from the tournament. Of the remaining 24, eight teams, including Bengal, were disqualified for fielding overage players.

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