It is not only a good news for the football fraternity, but also for the entire people of Sikkim that Sikkim Himalayan Sporting Club has been successful to acquire the All India Football Federation [AIFF] Accreditation for the prestigious I-League U-13, U-15 and U-18 tournament.
Also read: Sikkim Himalayan Sporting Club under inspection by AIFF
AIFF has given a two-star accreditation to the football academy of Sikkim Himalayan SC.
It has to be mentioned here that an AIFF official had recently visited Gangtok to inspect the facilities of Sikkim Himalayan SC for the academy certification.
Following the same, the AIFF has sent an e-mail to the SHSC on June 6 mentioning that the academy has secured a total of 175 points, thus getting a two-star rating.
With this accreditation, Sikkim Himalayan SC football academy can now participate in the I-League youth league of U-13, U-15 and U-18 age categories organised by the AIFF.
Expressing his happiness on the AIFF accreditation, Sikkim Himalayan SC founding president, Tenzing Lamtha mentioned that the club was formed in the year 2012 with the main objective to promote local talents of Sikkim and to provide them bigger platform in India football.
With a good start, SHSC won the State League B Division in 2013 and then became the champion of Sikkim Premier Division League in 2014 and gave encouraging performances in other prestigious tournaments.
Soon, Sikkim Himalayan SC played the prestigious I-League 2nd Division in 2015-16 and finished the league on the fourth position.
Lamtha mentioned that while playing across the country, the club realized the importance of having an academy playing in youth leagues of AIFF to bring out professional footballers from Sikkim.
He expressed that as I-League was the doorway for professional football and it was important to play in U-13, U-15 and U-18 leagues organized by the AIFF.
He added that there are talented footballers in all corners of the State and they just need the exposure and grooming to go the higher level.