100-team Leisure Leagues football tournament underway in Karachi

KARACHI: Mohammad Noman fired four goals during Leisure Leagues Karachi Youth Initiative’s matches at a local ground in Karachi to help his team Lyari Academy in beating Nabi Bux FC by an impressive margin of 4-0. 

On Saturday, the Leisure Leagues Karachi Youth Initiative exploded into action with eighty matches played at four different venues – namely 16-Star Football Ground (District Central), Ansar Union Football Stadium (District East), Mohammadi Stadium (District Malir) and Khyber-Muslim Football Stadium (District West).

Another 20 matches of District South were played on Sunday at Lyari’s Gabol Park Football Ground.

Twenty teams are equally divided into two groups – Group A and Group B and are playing two matches against one another – on home and away basis against other teams in their respective groups. According to Leisure Leagues rule book, a league cannot have more than ten teams. Therefore, the twenty teams playing at one venue have been divided into two groups of ten teams each.

After beating Nabi Bux FC by 4-0 score as away team, Lyari Academy was later held by the same team to a 0-0 tie when it played as home team.

Apart from Group B’s Lyari Academy at Gabol Park, Lyari Youth FC in Group A, also recorded a convincing 3-0 victory against Moosa Laghari FC as home team. Mohammad Yasir scored twice while Mohammad Amir scored one goal for winning team. Earlier, when Lyari Youth FC was away team and Moosa Laghari FC was home team, the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

Meanwhile in a Group B match, Noor Aalam sent the ball into the nets three times to help Master Yar Mohammad FC beat Sattar FC by 3-1 score as away team. Later Aalam scored one more goal as his team beat Sattar FC again by 2-0 score as home team. Shahjahan scored the other goal.

A total of 100 teams – twenty teams from each of the five districts namely District South, Central, East, Malir and West are participating in the mega tournament. More than nine hundred matches will be played to eventually identify ‘Leisure Leagues Karachi Champion’.

Leisure Leagues is organizing this league for the underprivileged youngsters of the city in order to keep them involved in healthy activities and subsequently away from unsocial activities. Leisure Leagues also believe that such activities can in near future produce football stars for the country.

The twenty teams of a district have been divided into two groups – Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’. Each team in a group will play 18 matches, two matches against every other team in the Group. A total of 900 matches will be played in the first double-league stage.

Top teams from Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ will play District final and a District Champion will emerge. Subsequently, the champions from the five districts will play in a ‘Champions League’, playing one match against each other. The top team from the league will become ‘Leisure Leagues Karachi Champions’.