PIFA Mumbai Lions finish fourth in Catalunya Cup 2013.

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) organized their 31st Champions Tour from 18-29 June 2013 to Barcelona. This being their 10th year.

Catalunya's UEFA licensed coach Antonio Sánchez, one of the most qualified technical professional from the Spanish football youth academy, assisted by coach's Joseph Maria of the reputed Hristo Stoichkov Academy in Barcelona trained the campers for 5 days at a five star resort in the mountains of Seva. They visited Nou Camp stadium and FC Barcelona Museum during their stay here.

The campers then moved to Lloret de Mar, a Mediterranean coastal town on the Costa Brava. A beautiful and lively beach town.

The boys participated in the Catalunya Cup 2013. Two teams were enrolled - the U11 & U19 both boys team. The U19 boys  finished 5^th in the tournament but the star of the tournament were the U11 boys.

The U11 team category was 7 a side and had 15 teams representing Germany, Ukraine, Egypt, Italy, France, Canada, Russia, Jordan, Spain & India. The PIFA-Mumbai Lions beat PGS Alessandria (Italy) 5-0, Portazgo SD (Spain) 2-1, Sports Academy SAI (Egypt) 4-0 and lost to the eventual cup winners Sokol Sports School 2-5 in their group stage.

The final stage, the team beat Dresdener SC (Germany) 3-1 to enter the semi -finals where fatigue got the better of this small squad of only 7 players to lose to Canada A.A (Canada). The team then lost  3rd place to Ednist (Ukraine) in a penalty shoot-out (6-7).

It was a fabulous performance by these young boys who had trained with PIFA for four months prior to this tournament  in Mumbai.  Arhan Khan, Shubhan Nadiadwala, Shaan Chhadva and Atulya Agarwal were outstanding for the U11 as were Dashyanng Kachru, Karan Patel, Yasheel Shah & Neel Shah for the U19 boys.

Bollywood star Malaika Arora Khan was present and supported the young Mumbai Lions through the competition.

The children visited the water park on the last day.

All campers were awarded a camp certificate and a football. Talented campers were invited to play for the PIFA teams.

The camp open to children between 9-18 years of all abilities, it is designed to develop children into better players, understand the diet & healthy habits of professional players and to understand the foreign culture.

LIVE YOUR DREAM - Indian children have an opportunity to showcase their talent in Spain

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) is organizing their 31^st  Champions Tour from 18-29 May 2013 to Barcelona. This being their 10^th year.

The campers will attend  the reputed Hristo Stoichkov Academy . Hristo Stoichkov is a  football legend from  Bulgaria. He was a member of the Bulgarian national team that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup, in which he was the top scorer with 6 goals that earned him the World Cup Golden Boot .  At FC Barcelona, he was part of Johan Cruyff's  'Dream Team',  it was one of the  most successful eras of the club, winning the La Liga four years in a row and the European Cup .

The training will be conducted by UEFA licensed coach Antonio Sánchez, one of the most qualified technical professional from the Spanish football youth academy, he is also scouts for Barcelona FC.  The players will be prepared for the International tournament as well as to enhance the ability.

The players will stay and train at a luxurious resort & training facilities. These facilities are also used by  Barcelona teams  for  their outstation camp.

The organizers have also invited the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff to have dinner with the campers, the children will be able to interact with the Barca legend. Cruyff is synonymous with the playing style of "Total Football" and master of the "Cruyff Turn". He won the Ballon d'Or thrice, a record recently broken by Messi.

The children will get a tour of Nou Camp Stadium and Museum, as well as a city tour.
In the second phase of the tour, the children will play an International  tournament in the beach town of Lloret, where over 200 teams are expected from all over the World. Famous young players like Neymar have participated in, the tournament is truly an opportunity for talented players to show case their skills and to be invited for club trials.

The camp is open to children between 10-20 years of all abilities. The camp is designed to develop children into better players, understand the diet & healthy habits of professional players, to understand the Spanish culture and to make new friends.

All campers will be awarded a camp certificate and a football.  One lucky participant will win a FC Barcelona jersey signed by Lionel Messi.

For tour details contact 9820968365

Indian children train & play in Barcelona

Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) organized their 30^th Champions Tour from 15-25 May 2013 to Barcelona. This being their 10^th year.

The camp was open to children between 10-18 years of all abilities. The camp is designed to develop children into better players, understand the diet & healthy habits of professional players, to understand the Spanish culture and to make new friends.

The participants were trained by Catalunya’s UEFA licensed coach Antonio Sánchez, one of the most qualified technical professional from the Spanish Catalunya football youth academy and assisted by  coach’s Angel Di Maria and Angel Micah at the reputed Hristo Stoichkov Academy in Barcelona.

The players were trained tactically on the Barcelona and Spanish formation and explained the principles employed by Pep Guardiola during his time with FC Barcelona.

The children got a tour of Nou Camp and the museum,  all were in awe of the silver ware  especially the FIFA Golden Boot 1994 belonging to Barca legend Hristo Stoichkov and Messi’s  four FIFA Ballon d'Or.

The following night they watched FC Barcelona beat  Real Valladolid 2-1 at Nou Camp. The match was followed by celebrations as FC Barcelona lifted the La Liga trophy for the 22nd time. The club captain Carles Puyol  let the team manager Tito Vilanova and team mate Eric Abidal, who have both been battling cancer this season, to lift the trophy, this was followed by fireworks.

This year the children also got to participate in the Pentecostes tournament held in the beach town of Lloret, in two age groups that was the  U15 & U17.  There were over 125 academy teams from all over Europe most of them being Germans that participated. The players were awarded a medal each.

All campers were awarded a camp certificate and a football. Talented campers have been invited to play for the PIFA teams.

The next  PIFA Champions Tour is to Barcelona on 18 June 2013. Call 98209 68365 for details.

PIFA kids meet Wayne Rooney.

PIFA Champions Tour to Manchester sprung a memorable surprise for the young campers when they were visited by England & Manchester United icon Wayne Rooney. 

The camps are organised by Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) since 2003 and is their 29^th European camp. The camp is open to boys and girls 10-19 years of age.

The camp included training everyday by Gary Judge from Coaching Connexions, tours to Old Trafford Stadium and Anfield Stadium, watch an EPL match and play a match against a local side.

However, at this camp, the children were also treated to training at four English Premier League club academies - Manchester United FC Academy at Broughton coaching by Shane – (U12 & Skills Specialist), Manchester City FC Academy at Platt Lane coaching by Collin Reade, Liverpool FC Academy at Kirby coaching by Ollie Morgan (Head of Sports Science, Stephen Torpey (9-11 yrs), Gary Lewis (12-14 yrs) and West Bromwich FC Academy at Halfords by David Lawrence (Ladies 1^st team). 

 

The campers played a 5 a side match against local club Nethertons FC, they won 21-11.

The participants had to undergo a skill test on the last day, the winner was Ritwik Dutta with 510 points just beating Rama Varma by 10 points. The best camper was Arjun Nair, he got a Liverpool captains armband and jersey signed by Steven Gerrard.

The highlight of the campers was meeting Wayne Rooney, who took time off from his busy schedule to spend an hour with the kids.

The next two PIFA Champions Tour is to Barcelona on 15 May and 18 June. To register contact 98209 68365.

Indian Football 2013 - the way ahead.

The current search for investors for 2 new I-League ONE clubs (i-L1), the recruitment of Rob Baan and his team all bear good tidings for Indian Football.

As someone interested in grass-root development there is still a lot more that AIFF can do.

Stop the Nationals.
Instead have inter club/academy zonal tournaments culminating in All India final for the various age group U15, U17, U19 and  U21 (Boys and Girls) and have the home clubs host the same.

This will help improve Indian football considerably.

1) Clubs will scout for good youth players and develop them
2) Issue of over age will be taken care of
3) Talented youth players will go on to play for the main club team, thus reducing player salaries
4) Develop fan base from students, parents-relatives and locality
5) With so many clubs and academies playing, the Indian selectors will have a greater choice to scout for the national camp.
6) Having the clubs host the matches will improve the organisation of the tournament
7) The money saved by AIFF not hosting the Nationals, can now be used - to recruit more staff, for the I league and used for the National academies.
8) Sponsors and investors will be interested
9) Media will be interested
10) Stop political influence in player and coach selection

Technical Center
The center will develop Coaches, Instructors, Technical and Referees on a year long basis. The center must have good football facilities and living arrangement for at least 50-100 people.

A 12 month calendar of events mentioning the certification, schedule and fees of all the courses with maybe on-line registration on first cum basis. However, priority must be given to the i-league clubs.

A dream start for PIFA in the I league 2nd division 2013

PIFA Sports FC made a dream start at the I league 2nd division football tournament organised by AIFF in Indore from 9 March 2013 onward.

The team won both its first 2 games to pick up 6 points and top the group B table. 

The group boasts of top teams from various city/states - Aizwal FC (Mizoram), Aryan Club (Kolkata), Bhowanipore Club (Kolkata), Green Valley SC (Guwahati), Josco FC (Kerala), Mohammedan Sporting Club (Kolkata), Royal Wahingdoh FC (Shillong) and Simla Youngs FC (Delhi).

PIFA Sports FC beat Simla Youngs 3-2 (Kevin, Sushil, Ketan) and beat Green Valley 2-1. (Emmanuel, Kevin)

PIFA SPORTS FC 

Goalkeepers
James Swamy, Neeraj Sharma

Field Players
Shabbir Ali, Aavesh Shaikh, Nihal Chandran,  Kunal K, Jacky Khaidem, Varin Mehta, Nagesh Swamy, Dashyanng Kachru, Akash Jain, Tushar Poojary, Priyo Kumar, Ravindra Tamatta, Ketan Kalgutkar, Neel Shah, Clifford Garette, Sushil Kawade, Kevin Patrick, Titus Uttankar, Vincent Asuquo (Nigeria), James Phiri (Zimbabwe), Emmanuel Okoye (Nigeria)

Officials
Faruk Ahmed (Coach), Nirvan Shah (CEO & Technical Director), Manish Dhabliya (Physio), Sudhakar Rane (Manager), Tejesh Sharma (Assistant Manager)

PIFA Sport FC, earlier known as PIFA Colaba FC, will be playing for the third time in the 2nd Division I-League. The team is being coached by UEFA A licensed coach Faruk Ahmed.

Saturdays will never be the same

Premier Football League (PFL) and Junior Football League (JFL) concluded on Saturday 23 February at the JBCN International School astro turf football pitch in Parel, Mumbai, The league was played over 12 Saturdays since 17 November 2012.

Two hundred fourteen boys between the ages 5 to 17 years participated in 6 age categories and forty two girls played in the 2 age groups. There were 1-2 talented underprivileged boys from the PIFA Foundation youth development program in most of the teams. Most of the teams were formed  randomly by mixing the players.

The participants were offered free training during this period by the league training partners - Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) at any of their 14 centres in Mumbai.

This League is the 2nd edition, the previous edition being played in 2011-2012 at the Western Railway ground in Parel.

Director Anjali Shah had this to say about the league "The league was designed for young children to show case and improve  their skills, to stay fit and healthy, to socialize and play with new team mates and finally, for parents to spend some quality time with their young ones"

The league had parents as coaches and managers. The league was played  4v4 for age 5-6 years and increased depending on their age category upto 7v7 for 12years and above. This was primarily to let the players get more touches of the ball and enable them to develop their skills.

The Winners and top scorers of the league were as follows :

JFL 1 (5-6 yrs) : Falcons (Raj Solanki)
JFL 2 (7-8 yrs) : Alligators (Jordan Naronha)
JFL 3 (9-10 yrs) : Titans (Sidh Surana)
JFL 4 (11-12 yrs) : Bombay Bullets (Abhishek)

PFL 1 (13-15 yrs) : Buca (Manas Maniar)
PFL 2 (16-17 yrs) : Black Panthers (Vaugn Menezes)
PFL Jr Girls (8-12 yrs) : Ballerina (Saaya Mehta)
PFL Sr Girls (13-17 yrs) : Spice Girls (Rhea Jaffer)

The top scorers won prizes from Nike.

The league technical Director Nirvan (UEFA/AFC B lic. coach) was excited by what he saw,  "Simply amazed to see the improvement in the ability of these young boys and girls over the 12 match days. They are now passing and creating opportunities. They are all enjoying their game, it is not about winning, it is about challenging themselves to get better. India's got talent, our next step as India coaches and parents is to nurture the talented cubs into world class players "

At the conclusion of this edition of the league Mrs Sunita Narohna (parent) exclaimed "Saturdays will not be the same any more !".

The next edition of the League will be in October 2013, registrations will open shortly on www.pfleague.in