YFSSA hosts two-day festival

BULAWAYO-BASED Young Flying Stars Sports Academy (YFSSA) will from today host a two-day inaugural edition of the Annual Soccer Festival that will be played at Bulawayo Chiefs Village and White City Stadium.

The festival, which will run till tomorrow, will bring together nine local academies drawn from the host town, Harare, Binga, Dete, and Zvishavane to compete in the Under-11 and 15 categories.

The Under 11s are meant to play in a seven-aside format. YFSSA director Collin Nyambiya said the tournament will run under the banner: “Destined for Greatness.”

“We are happy that we are going to be playing at this festival, the idea is to give budding football stars a platform to showcase and sharpen their skills. The Under-11s games will be played at Bulawayo Chiefs Village tomorrow (today) and the Under-15s games will be played on Saturday (tomorrow) at White City Stadium,” said Nyambiya.

The teams that will take part are YFSSA, Sao Paulo, LaMasia, Las Palmas, Nevada (Bulawayo), Green Bloods (Harare), Pams (Zvishavane), Ponnel (Dete) and Binga.

With Green Bloods being a dominant force in Harare their founder and administrator, Ashleigh Jere is confident they will carry home gold medals from the Bulawayo contest.

“We have participated in many tournaments in Harare and we have been doing well, so I feel that this opportunity to go and play outside the capital will be more beneficial in terms of giving exposure and motivation to the kids,” she said.

“Since April, we have won five trophies in the various tournaments we have participated in and around Harare, so now it is time to face broader competition.

“I believe participating at such platforms will sharpen our kids on and off the pitch because we are also looking at creating relations and culture exchange.”

Currently, the academy has more than 70 registered players between the ages of five and 17. -@FungaiMuderere