Team registers two victories in a day in Leisure Leagues football tournament

KARACHI: Mohammad Mudassir scored a brilliant hat-trick in Leisure Leagues Karachi Youth Initiative to lead his team Light of Baloch to a convincing 3-0 victory against Moosa Lashari FC here at a local ground in Karachi.

Earlier in the day, in the first tie against Moosa Lashari FC, Mohammad Asif scored solitary goal of the first match to put his team Light of Baloch 1-0 up in the two-match tie.

A day earlier on Saturday, 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 including that of Light of Baloch and Moosa lashari FC.

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.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Noman, who scored four goals in a single match scored twice for its team Lyari Academy 4-0 win against Shaheed Raja FC. Faqeer Mohammad and Hassam scored one goal each for the winners.

The second match between the sides ended in a goalless draw. Noman was man of the match in both matches.

Mohammad Jawad knocked a hat-trick in its team’s Lyari Star narrow 3-2 victory. Earlier, he scored the lone goal of the match to lead his team to 1-0 victory against the same opponents.

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.

Each player participating in the tournament has been given free kit and football shoes. Conveyance allowance has also been given to each team.

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’.

Leisure Leagues is holding its events across the country including Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Mardan, Quetta and Rawalpindi. Jacobabad and Gilgit are next in line. Leisure Leagues is looking forward to enhance their presence in more cities in near future.

The city champions of Leisure Leagues will then play in Leisure Leagues National Tournament, tentatively in March 2018.