Page 97 - Reliance Foundation Annual Report 2022-23

94 Sports for Development
Unleashing
potential,
inspiring
change
Key milestones 22-23
• Grassroots endeavour - School/College
tournaments: The 2022-2023 year saw the
much-awaited return of the RF Youth Sports
football tournament, after a two-year-long hiatus
caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The RF Young Champs initiative resumed the
intake of young footballers, alongside launching
its first satellite project in the state of Mizoram
through the Naupang League. Six graduates were
offered professional contracts by the ISL clubs
with one graduate signing for an I League Club.
• Making India football ready: Reliance
Foundation also kick-started the RF
Development League, that aims to give more
game time to young emerging talent as a
competitive elite youth tournament for
professional Indian football clubs.
The Sports for Development
programme supports three key areas:
Developing Football
Through the Sports for Development initiative, one of
the goals is to develop football while creating a pipeline
of talent available to play for the Indian national
football team, as well as professional clubs.
Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS): Football
tournaments also saw a much-awaited return,
providing a return to high-quality competitions for
schools and colleges. While ensuring competitive game
time to young talent was the top priority through the
Elite leagues, scouting partnerships with ISL / I-League
clubs and state associations and coach development
were given equal importance to look after the overall
growth of players and the ecosystem.
Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC): With
a strong focus on training, the Reliance Foundation
Young Champs initiative is aimed at providing holistic
development of youngsters through education and
sports. The scouting operations came back to full scale
Reliance Foundation | Annual Report 2022-23 95
with on-ground talent along with AiSCOUT, an AI Shining the spotlight
system, which was useful to gauge the ability and skills Ayush Chhikara
of players. To promote football in one of India’s cultural Chhikara intially secured a contract with Mumbai
hotbeds, Mizoram, the RF Young Champs Naupang City FC after graduating from the Reliance Foundation
League has been launched as part of Reliance’s Young Champs in 2020. However, the striker faced
adversity as he was kept away from football because
regional interventions. This aims to enable boys and of COVID-19 and an ACL injury. The 20-year-old
girls between ages 5 and 13 to play competitive football bounced back after making a full recovery to sign a
and increase their playing time. lucrative contract extension with the club. Chhikara
also made his first team debut in the ISL, in front of
The Reliance Foundation Development League
RFYC players and coaches who were in the stands
(RFDL): Reliance Foundation also kick-started the RF
sharing the proud moment.
Development League. The inaugural competition took Ngurhlunchhungi
place in Goa during April-May, 2022 had 7 ISL teams Ngurhlunchhungi is a young girl playing in the
and an RFYC team, competing, where Bengaluru FC U-11 category for Chawmpui Veng. Her father,
were crowned Champions with Kerala Blasters being Lalhrechianga, said “My daughter has been playing
the runners-up. Both the teams then travelled to the since was a little girl, and I am very happy to see her
United Kingdom to feature in the Next Generation play in the Naupang League. I am very glad that the
Reliance Foundation Young Champs Naupang League
Cup taking on reserve teams of Premier League Clubs. is happening and for us, who have grown up in a
village, opportunities like these help a lot. My daughter
The second edition of the RF Development League wants to play as much as possible, and whether she
that started in February 2023, featured 55+ Clubs plays against boys or girls it doesn’t matter. As long as
across 9 Regions in the country. she is competing, we are glad”.