Yapa Bakeries U-16 tourney on

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
IT will be hive of activity today at Ngoni Stadium in Norton when 16 teams take to the field to compete in the Yapa Bakeries boys Under-16 soccer tournament.

The one-day event will see teams drawn from Harare, Chegutu, Chitungwiza and Norton fighting for honours in this inaugural tournament.

Tournament co-ordinator, Vengai Tinarwo, said the competition is running under the theme “Football is life”.

“It’s a tournament for Under-16s sponsored by Yapa Bakeries. It’s the first time we are having this age-group competition. The theme for the tournament is ‘Football is Life’. We are saying people can make a living out of football.

“We have had tournaments for the Under-13s and that is an annual event so we thought of working with another age-group. We want to give them exposure and we are going to have scouts from junior national teams, the Premiership and we have scouts coming from Agape International Football Academy in South Africa. We want them to see that there is talent here in Zimbabwe,” said Tinarwo.

The tournament will be played in a round-robin format in the group stages with the 16 teams divided into four groups.

Group A is made up of Norton Tigers, BH Academy, Catholic Saints and Chamisa FC.

Group B consists of Young Zebras, Chunga Academy, Datco FC and Athletic Academy while Group C will see Aspire Youth Soccer Academy battle it out against Young Stars Academy, Sunrise Academy and Black Rhinos.

Diaspora Academy, Glenview Stars, Better 11 FC and DZ Academy will compete for the two slots into the quarter-finals in Group D.

The top two teams from each group will progress to the quarter-finals and Tinarwo said they are looking forward to competitive matches today as they selected the best teams from the various junior leagues in Chegutu, Harare and Norton.

“We are going to pick two teams from each group for the quarter-finals.

“There are trophies for the winners and personal accolades.

“The standards are going to be high because we have selected the best teams like in Chegutu we picked the team on top of their league and in Harare we did the same with the district leagues,” said Tinarwo.

For individuals, accolades will be given to the goalkeeper of the tournament, golden boot, player of the tournament, players’ player of the tournament, most promising player and the coach of the tournament.