Vedanta Sesa Goa deepens commitment to Goan football with the kick-off of the Sesa-Vedanta AWES Veterans’ Tournament
The eagerly awaited Sesa-Vedanta AWES Veterans’ Tournament, organized Vedanta Sesa Goa in collaboration with AWES (Association for the Welfare of Elderly Sportsmen), is set to commence this Sunday, the 24th of September at 5pm. The inaugural match promises to be a spectacle, featuring the seasoned ‘Chinchinim Veterans’ facing-off against the formidable ‘Bardez Veterans’. The Sinquetim Ground at Navelim is the venue for the tournament.
With eight teams Chinchinim, Bardez, Ilhas, Chandor, Vasco, Murida-Fatorda, Calangute and Navelim vying for supremacy, this football tournament is expected to witness keen contests and allow the present generation of football enthusiasts an opportunity to observe and witness the sporting icons of yesteryears recreating the magic and aura.
Derrick Pereira, the President of AWES, expressed his excitement about the event, stating, “I am eagerly looking forward to the commencement of the Sesa-Vedanta AWES Veterans’ Tournament. It provides our veteran players with an excellent platform to once again set alight the football field with their skills and also adds to the incentive of staying healthy and fit. This year’s schedule is truly remarkable as the inaugural Vedanta U-15 Girls Tournament and the new edition of the Vedanta U-15 Youth Cup are also being held alongside our veterans’ tournament. I must thank Vedanta Sesa Goa for their unstinted support over the four editions of the Tournament and for their inspirational initiatives to encourage and develop sporting excellence in Goa.”
The AWES was founded in 2017 with the aim of providing a platform for the sporting icons of yesteryears to reconnect with each other, to rekindle their memories with the general public, and to provide financial assistance to ex-players in need of the same. This year marks the fourth edition of this much anticipated tournament and Vedanta Sesa Goa, under the aegis of the Sesa Football Academey (SFA), has been associated with this initiative through all previous editions as well.
Leena Verenkar, Head, SCDF & CSR, said that, ” We at Vedanta are privileged and proud to be associated with AWES over the years and this provides us with an opportunity to give back to not only the veteran players but also to the sports loving communities of Goa. We are committed to nurturing and celebrating the veterans’ love for the game. Through our veterans we hope that the younger generation will be inspired to achieve greater successes. The first-ever Vedanta U-15 Girls Tournament, and the latest edition of the Vedanta U-15 Youth Cup, will foster women & youth empowerment & the grassroots level development of the game in Goa. As the tournament gears up for an action-packed start, I wish all the participating teams the very best”
The SFA is one of the two flagship CSR initiatives of Vedanta Sesa Goa, other being the Sesa Technical School. SFA, since 1999, is instrumental in continuously scouting for the aspiring talents in football to groom them as a professional footballers. A total of 183 footballers have graduated through the SFA.Apart from Residential football training programs,Vedanta has also launched the Vedanta women’s league (VWL) in collaboration with GFA, which is one of its kind platforms for aspiring women footballers across Goa state. 350+ Women footballers from across Goa have so far participated in the in the VWL, including the ongoing 7th season.
About Vedanta Cares
Vedanta is committed to reinvest in the social good of its neighbourhood communities and the nation. The Group’s flagship CSR project, Nand Ghar, is a network of model anganwadis where the thrust is on inclusive development of women and children at the grassroots level. The Group CSR initiative comprises of seven key verticals – Education, Healthcare, Water and Sanitation, Sustainable Livelihood, Skilling, Sports & Culture and Employee Volunteering. Vedanta Foundation, a philanthropic initiative of Vedanta Group is focused on skill development and vocational training programmes for the underprivileged to make them employable. A key healthcare speciality CSR project is the Balco Medical Center, a 200-bed state-of-the-art Cancer care hospital located in New Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The company supports grassroots level sports through their Football academies in Goa and Udaipur.
About Vedanta Limited
Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa, Namibia, and Australia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing to India’s growth story, currently contributing 1 percent of India’s GDP. The company is among the top private sector contributors to the exchequer with the highest ever contribution of INR 42,560 Crore in FY 2019. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company has been conferred the CII-ITC Sustainability Award, the FICCI CSR Award, Dun & Bradstreet Awards in Metals & Mining, and certified as a Great Place to Work. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
About SESA Football Academy
An initiative of SESA Community Development Foundation (SCDF), SESA Football Academy (SFA) was founded in 1999 for the holistic development of the local youths through football. The academy has created the conditions for discovering, creating and building talent for football. SFA does not restrict itself to football trainings but involves in a long term residential program which takes care of the formal education, skill development of the trainees during the four-year training period.
The academy has a strong focus on women empowerment through football. Since inception, SFA has trained around 200 footballers and has made tremendous impact on the football fraternity in Goa as well as across India. The graduates from SFA are serving in the national teams, Indian Super League (ISL), I-League clubs of India and clubs in Goa. 7 players have earned the national team cap and several players played the elite ISL.