After the pandemic, Jamshedpur will be the first of 20 cities to kick off the first match of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) Football Championship 2022-23, on the 26th of September 2022 in partnership with Jamshedpur Football Club who is contributing its resources to ensure a smooth and successful event. The tournament will take place for 24 days, at the end of which one team will be crowned champion per category.
The change in format from league to knockout was announced to the officials along with the cap on the maximum number of teams to participate per category:
School Girls (U-18) = 16 teams
College Boys (U-23) = 16 teams
Sr. Boys (U-23) = 24 teams
Jr. Boys (U-16) = 24 teams
Sub Jr. Boys (U-14) = 24 teams
“We’re happy that the tournaments are back after two years, and it’s going to supplement and complement all our initiatives that Jamshedpur FC does at the grassroots and youth development level. I’d like to congratulate the Reliance Foundation team and their initiative. We at Jamshedpur FC are very proud and glad that we are partnering with Reliance Foundation to help them put this together in Jamshedpur and it’s going to be wonderful once again to have it the way it was before and it’ll only get better with the years to come,” stated Jamshedpur FC CEO Mr. Mukul Choudhari on the youth tournaments coming back to Jamshedpur for the aspiring local footballers.
The tournament has been hosting to a very high standard of football in the city of Jamshedpur, as seen in the example of Shyam Prasad Intermediate College Sr. Boys (U-18) Team in the 2019-20 Season. They became the first-ever team from Jamshedpur to qualify for the National Championship in Mumbai after a stellar performance in the National Qualifiers - East in Bhubaneswar where they beat the teams participating from Kolkata and Bhubaneswar, and drew against the team participating from Manipur.
Before kick-off, the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports held a workshop for the respected JSA Match Commissioners and Referees, briefing them about the technical and practical aspects and aims of the event and some of the trends and highlights of previous year’s events.
