Final tournament and coaching camp to select the Sri Lankan pool for Milo Champions Cup in Barcelona
The All-Island Under-12 Football Tournament organised by Milo and the Sri Lanka Schools Football Association in preparation for the “Milo Champions Cup” has reached its penultimate stage. The tournament which kicked off on March 8 was with an objective of identifying and selecting the best talent to form the team that would represent Sri Lanka at the Milo Champions Cup Barcelona.
Milo’s aim is to nourish the ambitions of kids through their participation in sports, and encourage well rounded personalities. FC Barcelona prides itself on five principal values, namely: ‘Humility’, ‘Effort’, ‘Ambition’, ‘Respect’, and ‘Teamwork’. Building on these shared values, Milo and FC Barcelona formed a four-year global partnership to promote healthier lifestyles and the importance of physical activity to young people. Together, they are developing a series of sports programmes to encourage more young people to take part in sports. Committed to developing school sports in Sri Lanka for more than three decades, Milo is leveraging this global agreement to help develop football in Sri Lanka as well as develop and inspire young football stars through its ‘MILO Champions Cup’.
‘The Milo Champions Cup’ kicked off in Sri Lanka with an All-Island Under-12 Football Tournament, executed by the Sri Lanka Schools’ Football Association under the patronage of the Ministry of Education. The tournament was open to boys and girls born in 2008 and 2009. A total of 265 girls’ teams and 822 boys’ teams took part in the tournament, bringing the total number of participants to 13,044 children. Based on the skills and values demonstrated at the provincial matches, the best children have been shortlisted to compete in the final tournament followed by a coaching camp.
Over 400 participants from 32 boys’ schools and 32 girls schools will be competing in the final tournament, followed by a coaching camp where an expert panel of coaches will select the eight most deserving players to represent Sri Lanka in the Milo Champions Cup.
Although it was initially scheduled to be held in China, the venue has now been shifted to Barcelona.
The selected eight players will represent Sri Lanka in the Milo Champions Cup in Barcelona to compete with countries across the world such as Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Pakistan, Colombia, Chile, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago. A playing side in the tournament will comprise of eight players, in a series of 5-a-side matches with a minimum of a female player on each team with each match lasting for two halves of 10 minutes. The Football event will go for nine days, which will also include a coaching camp run by FC Barcelona – the FC Barcelona Barca Academy (Soccer School).
Throughout the campaign Milo will also put heavy focus on recognizing good team values among the young players. To demonstrate the importance of team spirit, Milo together with FC Barcelona will carry out this new initiative under the theme #TEAMMAKESME, to encourage kids around the world to work as a team.