September 5th, 2014: Vishwa of Greenwood United puts on a commanding display to ensure his team convincingly beats the BGS Blizzards 5-1.
The above statement may leave you perplexed as to what really was going on. These are teams that you probably may never heard of but teams that you should be knowing of in the near future.
The Pro School League (PSL), an initiative of the Federation for Collegiate and School Sports of India (FCSSI) is changing the face of grassroot level football culture in the city.
School students under the age of 18 now have an opportunity to play in a league system panning 2 months encouraging the home and away format; a scaled down model of Europe’s biggest football leagues.
The Federation is a non profit organization comprising of three esteemed professionals that oversee its operations and dealings. Mrs. Vidya Pillai, World Snooker No.3 and India’s Women Snooker no.1, Mr. Dominic V, former COO of Leap Start India and Mr. Luis Nickson, former Indian Football international and current Bengaluru FC youth level coach bring credibility and experience to the table, exploring new avenues to develop sporting infrastructure and systems in the country.
The FCSSI in partnership with Proictus Management Pvt.Ltd has strived to create a much needed grassroot level structure for school going students, enabling not only the participating athletes to take football more seriously but also involving school administrations and parents to be more active. The participating teams for the inaugral edition include:
1) The International School, Bangalore- TISB Trojans 2) Greenwood High- Greenwood United3) Jain International – Jain Monks4) BGS International- BGS Blizzards5) Parikrama Foundation- Parikrama Fighters6) Badlwin Boys High School- Baldwin Lions
With Gameweek 1 already concluded, the Pro School League (PSL) has already found its star players and potential powerhouses among the very enthusiastic students. The leader board has found its recipients and the PSL table is already gathering shape. The official Facebook page has already nearing the 1000 likes mark in addition to providing world football news, pictures from PSL games etc.
The launch of the official website is expected to be announced anytime this week with video highlights and interview snippets of coaches and players to accompany the launch. Never before has a school level tournament seen this magnitude of importance and attention to detail,the extensive video coverage, photography and highlighting of individual talent.The football revolution in namma Bengaluru is well and truly on its course.