The BRICS under-17 tournament will be hosted by India next year, which will be organised in order to test the nation’s credentials of hosting the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017. The BRICS tournament will see teams from all the five nations who are part of the association, namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with an additional U-17 team invited.
The competition will take place during the BRICS summit which will take place in April next year, and will follow FIFA U-17 World Cup guidelines. India will host the inaugural edition at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, with subsequent editions taking place in the other BRICS nations.
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“The tournament will strengthen the relations between BRICS nations using football as a catalyst to create communities, encourage friendship and bring young people of different BRICS cultures even closer,” said Joao Gilberto Vaz, Project Leader and Tournament Organiser.
“India is a key player in all segments within BRICS and a football event in India will also bring a new image of importance to football,” Vaz concluded.
Delhi Dynamos invited
Recently, Indian Super League franchise, Delhi Dynamos signed an agreement with the tournament organisers to be the sixth team in the competition. The Dynamos will be a part of the tournament along with playing their part in the development of football at the grassroots level in the nation.
They will also be involved in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) related activities of the BRICS tournament. The club also announced its plans to start a football academy in Lucknow as part of their CSR activities in north India.
Delhi Dynamos president Prashant Agarwal had his say on the club’s plans on encouraging young talents and also on the tournament. “BRICS have seen a dearth of professionally run football academies with the correct infrastructure.”
“They have chosen to partner with DDFC to leverage the strengths of the club and bring in their own expertise and knowledge to bridge the gap of professional football training in India. We at Delhi Dynamos FC have always worked towards the development of the game at grassroots level and we hope to see more and more children taking up the sport professionally, and benefitting from the football academies.”
In order to announce their association with the tournament, a YES Bank BRICS Diplomatic Football Cup was organised in the first week of December. Teams from all five associated countries took part in the diplomatic football cup along with the Delhi Dynamos U-17 team. The South African team won the tournament and the Dynamos team finished runners-up as they lost 3-2 to the African team in the final.
