Veteran’s Football Invitational Tournament 2019 was kicked off at Paljor Stadium in Sikkim capital Gangtok on Saturday.
Seventeen teams from in and outside the State are participating in this knock-out football tournament. The inaugural day of the tournament has Sikkim Himalayan Sporting Club founder, Tenzing Lamtha as the chief guest.
The inaugural match was played between Pradhan Nagar Football Club, Siliguri and Soreng Veteran’s, in which the former edged past the latter 2-1. In the second match of the day, Namcheybong Veteran‘s defeated Brothers Veteran’s 5-1. Likewise, TYC Veteran’s, Gangtok outplayed MFC Rumtek Veteran’s 6-1 in the last match of the day.
The week-long tournament is being organised by Gangtok-based Sikkim Boys Football Club. The tournament has veteran’s teams from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Siliguri, Dooars and different parts of Sikkim.
Sikkim Boys FC general secretary, Milan Lepcha mentioned that the main objective of the tournament was to bring together all ex-footballers from Sikkim and neighbouring regions who have contributed lots for the development of football.
He mentioned that Sikkim Boys FC would also felicitated one player from each participating team during the tournament for his immense contributions towards the development of football in their respective region.
Lepcha informed that the club has organised the veteran’s tournament for the first time and has plans to make it an annual event. He mentioned that the club has been working to provide platform and training to young footballers to play the State league and other tournaments in and outside the State. He mentioned that Sikkim Boys FC has been promoted to play the second division Sikkim-League 2020.
He expressed that another motive of this veteran’s tournament was to give opportunities to see the game of former national and state players from the State and neighbouring regions once again and to take inspiration from them.