Phoenix Cup opens soccer calendar for New Year

Bernard PERERA

With the dawn of the year 2010 soccer in Sri Lanka will make a fine start when the City Football League takes the lead in organizing the Division I Invitation Knock out Tournament. The Tourney will get underway on January 09 and conclude on February 13. with the final at City Football League ground.

The organizers have invited twelve teams for the tourney which is sponsored by Phoenix and the winner will be awarded the Phoenix Cup along with Rs. 100,000, while the runner-up is to receive Rs. 50,000. These details were disclosed at the press briefing held at the Sports Hotel in Colombo.

Deputy President of the City Football League M. Premadasa addressing the media said that the tournament is set to give made an opportunity for the aspiring young soccerites to make a strong bid to enter the National squad. With this in mind the organizers have got the approval from the Football Federation of Sri Lanka and also have made a request to appoint few senior players to select players for the future national team. He further added that this will be a great chance for them to find new talent. We as organizers hope this will be of immense help for the future.

Adding further he noted that four leading teams Renown Sports Club, Java Lane Sports Club, Old Bens Sports Club and Ratnam Sports Club have drawn byes or this tournament. They will compete in the quarter final stage with the winners of the pre-quarter finals.

The draw for the pre quarters are as follows Silver SC vs Maligawatte Youth SC, on January 09, Blue Star SC vs Sarasavi SC, on January 10, Cooray SC vs Premier SC, on January 16 and Saunders SC vs New Youngs SC, on January 17.

Renown SC the winners of the Dialog Premier League 2009 will play the first quarter on January 23, while Java Lane SC will play the second on Jan.24, and the remaining two quarters are scheduled on January 30 and 31. All these games are to be played at the City Football ground commencing at 3.30 p.m.