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SFA Championships 2023-2024 begins India’s grassroots sporting revolution
- SFA Championships conclude the first 6 cities of the calendar year with more than 18,000 matches
- Over 80,000 athletes competed in 6 cities from more than 3,000 schools
- Each city saw more than 3500 matches being scheduled for athletes
Mumbai, India: December 20th, 2023:
Sports For All (SFA), India’s largest tech-enabled multi-sport school competition platform, has set a new benchmark in discovering and empowering young sporting talent, through SFA Championships. With a commitment to host Championships in 10 cities this year, SFA has successfully concluded 6 SFA Championships in 60 days in cities namely Indore, Dehradun, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai. In just about two months, the SFA Championships inspired more than 80,000 athletes from over 3,000 schools, fueling their sporting ambitions and contributing to India’s untapped sporting potential.
The SFA Championships are enabling school sporting competition at a scale never witnessed in the country, especially for multi-sports and backed by technology. This city-based model celebrated the indomitable spirit of sportsmanship, discovering talent that will contribute to the future of the sporting ecosystem. The initial 6 cities of the SFA Championships have discovered the “number one school in sports” across the cities of Indore, Dehradun, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai. Delhi Public School (Nipania) in Indore, Maharana Pratap Sports College in Dehradun, Cambridge Court World School in Jaipur, Vignan Bo Tree School (Nizampet) in Hyderabad, Vidya Valley School (Sus) in Pune, and Don Bosco International School (Matunga) in Mumbai bagged the prestigious title of “number one school in sports”, in the respective cities.
True to the endeavor of giving youth inspiring and joyful sporting experiences, the SFA Championships transformed iconic sporting venues in each city for school athletes to play. Stadiums like the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex (in Balewadi) in Pune, the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, the Gachibowli Sports Complex in Hyderabad, Abhay Prashal Sports Club and Basketball Complex, Indore, and Shahaji Raje Krida Sankul (Sports Complex) in Andheri fostered a conducive environment for sporting excellence.
Bolstering the athlete’s spirit to play in a professional environment, needs immense support from the local machinery to work seamlessly. Through this sporting platform, the local economies have witnessed growth with SFA Championships, thus creating value for every stakeholder and leading towards capacity building for the cities and states to host reputable large-scale multi-sport events. Fostering collaboration with local coaches, academies, vendors, and other businesses, boosting the travel and hospitality industries, and providing employment for residents, and opportunities for students, SFA Championships are on their way to strengthening the city’s economic health, through sports. It’s noteworthy to recall that on a single day in October, three cities hosted school sports competitions across eight venues, engaging 1242 workforce members, volunteers, and officials across 12 sporting disciplines.
Inching closer to the milestone for 2023-2024, Rajas Joshi, COO & Championships Director, SFA, added, “Reflecting upon how SFA Championships has brought alive a revolution, it becomes apparent that sports transcend beyond physical activity and is indeed an emotion. The unparalleled enthusiasm at the Championships reaffirms our belief that these young athletes only required a platform, to come play. With 80,000 school athletes playing within a span of 60 days, the “Ab Jeetega India” movement, through the SFA Championships, is a historic beginning for the nation to build a formidable grassroots sporting ecosystem. And a sustainable one that is now available on the screens of Viacom18”.
SFA Championships and Viacom18 have partnered to make school sports accessible to millions of sports fans, across the country. The Championships can now be viewed on JioCinema (app), Sports18-2, and Sports18 Khel (TV channels). This further deepens with visibility of the Championships on DD Sports.
Giving exposure to multi-sports, SFA Championships recognizes the ‘Golden Boy’ and ‘Golden Girl’, where athletes with achievements in multi-sports are awarded. With the remarkable times for female athletes to build their sporting careers, SFA Championships celebrates the initiative ‘She is Gold’, where a day across all Championships is dedicated to empowering and encouraging female athletes to play (since inception, in 2015). More than 5000 female athletes, across 6 cities, joined in with their commitment to building a career in sports.
Building an environment for every school athlete to play, irrespective of geography or socio-economic background, SFA Championships has witnessed impressive diversity in participation, with 33% female athletes and 67% male athletes competing on an equitable platform. At the Championships, the top sports opted by girls were athletics, basketball, football, swimming, and skating, while boys preferred to compete in football, athletics, basketball, chess, and swimming.
As the SFA Championships concluded, parents, coaches, and athletes celebrated a transformative event that went beyond traditional sports competitions. Each child’s dream echoed aspirations of winning at the Olympics and representing the nation at the highest level. SFA’s organizational prowess was evident in bringing together a myriad of sports on such a grand scale, creating a unique platform where several national and international-level players competed across diverse sporting disciplines. SFA Championships is poised to make sports accessible for young athletes across the country, thereby empowering today’s talent to become the Champions of tomorrow.
