Whether you prefer the term “Jogo Bonita” or quite simply the beautiful game, young Goan football lovers can punch the air and say Viva, as Sporting Clube de Goa will conduct a Grassroot football festival on Sunday 28th September 2014, at Don Bosco Ground, Panjim. The festival will kick off at 9am, but participants have to report prompt at 8.30am.

The participants will consist of around 200 young wards from selected Schools and orphanages from the North of Goa in the U-12 age group. The club has also chalked out plans to facilitate players in South Goa at a later date, with a similar Grassroots project.

The SCG Grassroots festival is another initiative taken by the club to promote football in the beautiful state. It is an extension of the deeply rooted commitment by the club to Goan football.

Earlier in the year the club had held All-Goa trials to select players for the SCG Academy, which is situated at Don Bosco in Panjim. The Flaming Oranje has also adopted 3 Schools around Goa under the umbrella of the very popular and successful School Community Grassroots (SCG) Program.

In living its motto of GROWING GOA’S GAME!, Sporting Clube de Goa is one of the few Sports institutions in the state offering a pathway that leads right from the grassroots, to the youth development stage and finally to the lucrative professional level for the more ambitious talents hungry enough to make a career from their passion.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as the club has provided a platform for one player to ply his trade in the UEFA Champions League (Dudu Omagbemi). Playing for the national team is another avenue to explore.

“Grassroots football provides the key to the beginning of the proud journey that can see you representing the country. When I was younger we did not have so many football festival experiences, but it is necessary to change the landscape of Indian Football”, remarked Sporting Goa striker Victorino Fernandes who is currently in the Indian national football team.

Sporting Goa Head Coach Oscar Bruzon was equally enthusiastic about the SCG festival, “Grassroots football offers a form of social recreation in a safe environment, where participants can seek solace and feel truly cared for by the festival leaders who provide the opportunity to express themselves to the fullest with all the joy and excitement to boot,” stated Oscar.

The SCG Grassroots festival is based on the FIFA model which introduces young participants to small-sided games and stations, arranged in a circuit format to bring out the FUN in the FUN-DAMENTALS of football.

Sporting Goa also recognises the need that training should be age specific in accordance with the characteristics and certain stages in child development, so that the young wards can truly imbibe the values of the world’s no.1 sport which include equality, healthy living, teamwork and social inclusion.