Reliance Foundation’s, the CSR arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), ongoing 2022-23 Football season of Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS), with countrywide, multi-sport programs for school and college athletes with a host of initiatives designed to give Indian grassroots football a major boost. This year RFYS is collaborating with ISL clubs, state federations, and partners in conducting school and college-level competitions in football with expected participation from over 33,000+ athletes and 2,400+ teams from across the country bringing students #BackonthePitch. This season with the resumption of a full calendar, there will be an increased focus on giving exposure to greater no. of quality games to the top teams, while also looking at multiple other initiatives to grow the ecosystem.

This season RFYS plans to reach across 20 centres that include multiple districts within 18 states to develop the football ecosystems, such as Assam, Odisha, Delhi NCR, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Telangana, and more. Since its inception in 2016, RFYS has aimed to provide a platform for young athletes to build a career in the sport of their choice, to get more students to start playing sports and to have a positive impact on the ecosystem through skill enhancement of PE teachers, infrastructure upgrades and community engagement programs. With the partnerships with professional football clubs, there is also an opportunity for players to be scouted by football clubs, thus paving the pathway for a professional football career.

In addition to the focus on providing high-quality football competitions to the teams and athletes, RFYS will look to run multiple initiatives to strengthen the ecosystem and provide greater opportunities to the youth:

• Creating scouting pathways for top players through active partnerships with professional clubs
• Fan engagement days and activities focused on increasing support and encouragement from key stakeholders like students, parents, coaches and alumni
• Provide volunteering opportunities for students to gain valuable professional experience in sports
• Online and offline certification courses for up-skilling of athletes, coaches and officials
• Disbursement of grants for select participating institutes to enhance their sports program
• Special grants and centres of development to provide footballing opportunities to local communities

Since inception, RFYS has impacted 9 million children, from more than 10,000 schools and colleges, in 26 states and union territories and has supported the football coaching ecosystem by up-skilling 750+ coaches with RFYS sponsored D License coaching certification in association with AIFF. During the pandemic, RFYS conducted virtual sessions on fitness, nutrition, well-being of athletes which were attended by over 11,000+ coaches/athletes, and hosted digital Coach education workshops with The Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC) providing certification to over 400+ coaches.

About Reliance Foundation Sports:

Reliance Foundation celebrates the spirit of sports – joy, health, grit, determination, winning and losing. And works to ensure that more and more children and youth from all sections of society are able to play sports and, in the process, build a fitter, stronger and more active India. Our initiatives have touched the lives of over 21.5 million young people since 2013 across the country from 13,000+ schools and colleges, enabling an opportunity for a talented kid anywhere to be able to achieve their dream of a career/glory in sports. We are especially committed to ensuring more presence and success of girl and women athletes in India and design our programmes in a manner that offers them maximum opportunities. At Reliance Foundation, we hope to be the wind beneath the wings of Indian sportspersons and help them reach their true potential.

For more information on the tournament, athletes, institutions, and special initiatives please follow us on www.rfyouthsports.com

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Comments from participating students & coaches in the present RFYS 22-23 season

Akash Chaudhary , DAV PG College, Dehradun,

“I have a great experience competing in RFYS.In 2019/20 also, we played the city championship in Dehradun, and then we went to Ludhiana to play the national qualifier, and then qualified from North Zone and competed in the national championship. It’s been a great experience, and lot of support has been offered to us, and lot of players are getting the chance to play, and are being scouted, and there is a lot of support in form of grants as well.”

Dr. Srinivas Nadella, Assistant Professor in Physical Education at MVSR Engineering College, Hyderabad,

“It is a good platform for football players. I am a football player and we didn’t get this many platforms to perform and with Reliance Foundation Youth Sports, they are providing a good platform to players and they are getting a good pathway for ISL also. One of my student is a goal keeper and is playing in the ISL right now. Many colleges are seeing the benefit as they are getting opportunities to play.”

Dr. Kumudhini Goud, Lecturer, Government college of physical education, Hyderabad,

“Reliance Foundation Youth Sports has been a very helpful tournament for us where we can very easily Identify the talent, especially for our college which is a government institute, where we do not have the exposure to tournament like these. The students will benefit a lot from participating here and thankful to Reliance Foundation for inviting us.”